fV. 



^y^-- 



K 



(>\.Ji\. 



isTORiCAL Essays 



INDIANS. TEEDYUSCUNG. 

f 

1 iR^i >!■ rri.^MENT 6y wilkes-barrk 



OLD FORGE. EARLY METHODISM 



COAL: ITS ANTIQUITY. 

, i 

hISCOVEKV AM' I AKI V III AEIOPMENT IN THE WVOMIN'. VAI I.KN 



SABBATH-SUNDAY 



^l ND.\Y lEGISLATION. 



'"■rr, B. KULP, 

il-MliKH)uiiAI-HM»-Ot- lUH \v\uMINr. HISTORICAL ANIJ oKOLi".i..Ai 
AUTHOR OF " I AMIUIB^OF THE WYOMING VAX-LEV," KTC. 




W;ILKE.S-BARRE, PA 
I 8 9 2 . 



Historical Essays 



INDIANS. TEEDYUSCUNG. 



FIRST SETTLEMENT OF WILKES-BARRE. 



OLD FORGE. EARLY METHODISM. 



COAL; ITS ANTIQUITY. 

DISCOVERY AND EARLY DEVELOPMENT IN THE WYOMING VALLEY. 



SABBATH-SUNDAY. 

SUNDAY LEGISLATION. 

GEO. b/kULP, 

HISTORIOGRAPHER OF THB WYOMING HISTORICAL AND GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY 
AUTHOR OF " FAMILIES OF THE WYOMING VALLEY," ETC. 



WILKES-BARRE, PA. 
1892. 



^ 



i 



Copyright, 1892, 

BY 

Geo. B. Kulp.. 



CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

INDIANS, 1 

COAL, 57 

SABBATH— SUNDAY, 91 

OLD FORGE 145 



INDIANS. 



TEEDYUSCUNG 



FIRST SETTLEMENT OF WILKES-BARRE. 




TEEDYUSCUNO 



INDIANS. 



TEEDYUSCUNG. 



FIRST SETTLEMENT OF WILKES-BARRE. 



"Alas ! for them their day is o'er, 
Their fires are out from shore to shore. 
No more for them the wild deer bounds, 
The plough is on their hunting grounds ; 
The pale man's axe rings through their woods, 
The pale man's sail skims o'er their floods ; 
Their children — look, by power oppressed, 
Beyond the mountains of the West — 
Their children go — to die. ' ' 

When the Europeans first discovered the Western Con- 
tinent they found it inhabited by human beings. They 
called them Indians, because they thought they had arrived 
at the eastern coast of India — that great country for which 
they had so anxiously sought a short passage. Though 
erroneously applied the name then given them remains un- 
changed. All Europeans had been taught to call them by 
this name ; they recognized them by it, and they could not 
change it. It is not known that a change of name was even 
suggested, much less attempted, and it is possible that these 
Indians received the right name by accident, though their 
discoverers found them in a great country, far removed 
from the continent, whence it is believed they had their 
origin. The Europeans found tribes of these Indians scat- 
tered along the entire eastern coast of this country, from 
Maine to Florida, and each tribe had a different name. 
Their origin was not then known ; and it is not known now 



to a ccrtaint}', though four hundred years have elapsed 
since their discovery here. Who were they? It is sup- 
posed that they originally came from the far west, even 
from Asia — having wandered thence in some manner, either 
by land or sea, toward the rising sun, to this continent. 
When they landed in the west, and especially when they 
reached the eastern coast, is still one of the great mysteries 
of our interesting history. It may be that they wandered 
eastwardly from a given point, just as the Japhetic tribe 
of men wandered westwardly. If the theory of the Bible 
is correct, all mankind must have originated from the few 
survivors of the great flood, who landed on Mount Ararat, 
in Asia. After this great event Japheth and his family and 
their descendants migrated to the west ; Ham, his family 
and their descendants to the south, and Shem, his family 
and their descendants to the east. Accordingly, these 
"Indians" may have descended from Shem. 

A very long period must have elapsed till they became 
settled along the Atlantic coast. Yet it would seem that 
they had reached this point before the descendants of 
Japheth, who, in their developments and geographical move- 
ments, proceeded in an opposite direction. This was a re- 
markable meeting in the history of progressive civilization. 
Reckoning the flood to have transpired, according to sacred 
history, in the year 2348, before Christ, they met after the 
lapse of three thousand eight hundred and forty years / On 
the one hand, the "Indians" were guided alone by the 
"Great Spirit," preserving naught as they went from cen- 
tury to century, and from one continent to the other, but 
their instincts, their manners, and their languages, and ap- 
parently showing no improvement in social, mental and 
spiritual development, without literature of any kind, ex- 
cepting rude inscriptions on rocks and stones. On the 
other, the Europeans were guided by reason, producing one 
improvement after the other in e\ery department of life, ac- 



5 

companied by an abiding faith in God, by Revelation, and 
by the Bible, and developing literature as wonderful in ex- 
tent as it was superior in character. What a vast difference 
in mankind such a time had produced ! Who can explain 
it ? Why were they not kept equal in the progress of time ? 
Eastwardly, though to catch, as it were, the rising sun, and, 
by getting into the dawning light of day, to become pos- 
sessor of his Creator's excellence, the one went into bar- 
barity and darkness ; westwardly, though after the setting 
sun and into darkness, the other went into civilization and 
light. This is a contrast, indeed, wonderful to relate and 
truly surprising to understand ! A comparison of the man- 
ners and customs of the "Indians," as they have been given 
to us by early settlers and historians from the time of the 
first settlements in our country, say about 1600, A. D., with 
the manners and customs of western Asia, as they have 
been transmitted to us by literature for an equal period be- 
fore Christ, say 1600, reveals many similarities, especially 
in the daily affairs of domestic life. In spiritual life both 
believ^ed in God, and knew what it was to be truthful and 
honorable in social and political life. Yet, of the two 
classes which has distinguished itself the most in point of 
social honor and political integrity. The Indians have been 
universally praised for these qualities, notwithstanding their 
heartless barbarity and mental darkness, but the Europeans 
have received continuous and general condemnation for the 
remarkable want of these qualities, guided, even as they 
claimed to ha\e been by the love of God and the light of 
the mind. 

The Lcnni Lcnape, or the original people, as they called 
themselves, inhabited principally the shores of the river 
Delaware, thence their name. The Lenape were of western 
origin, and nearly forty tribes, according to Heckewelder, 
acknowledged them as their "grandfathers" or parent stock. 
It was related by the braves of the Dclawares, that many 



centuries previous their ancestors dwelt far in the western 
wilds of the American continent, but emigrating eastwardly, 
arri\cd after many )'ears on the Mississippi, or riv^er offish, 
where they fell in with the Mengwe (Iroquois), who had 
also emigrated from a distant country, and approached 
this river somewhat nearer its source. The spies of the 
Lenape reported the country on the east of the Mississippi 
to be inhabited by a powerful nation, dwelling in large 
towns erected upon their principal rivers. This people, 
tall and stout, some of whom, as tradition reports, were of 
gigantic mould, bore the name of AUegewi, and from them 
were derived the names of the Allegheny river and moun- 
tains. Their towns were defended by regular fortifications 
or intrenchments of earth, vestiges of which are yet shown 
in greater or less preservation. The Lenape requested per- 
mission to establish themselves in their vicinity. This was 
refused, but leave was given them to pass the river and 
seek a country farther to the eastward. But, whilst the 
Lenape were crossing the river, the Allegcwi, becoming 
alarmed at their number, assailed and destroyed many of 
those who had reached the eastern shore, and threatened a 
like fate to the others should they attempt the stream. 
Fired at the loss they had sustained, the Lenape eagerly 
accepted a proposition from the Mengwe, who had hitherto 
been spectators only of their enterprise, to conquer and di- 
vide the countr)^ A war of many }'ears duration was 
waged b)' the united nations, marked by great havoc on 
both sides, w hich e\eiituated in the conquest and expulsion 
(.if the Allegewi, who fled by the way of the Mississippi 
never to return. Their de\astated countr\- was apportioned 
among the conciuerors ; the Iroquois choosing their resi- 
dence in the neighborhood of the great lakes, and the 
Lenape possessing themselves of the lands to the south. 
After many ages, during which the conquerors lived to- 
getiier in great harmony, the enterprising hunters of the 



Lenape crossed the Allegheny mountains, and discovered 
the great rivers Susquehanna and Delaware, and their re- 
spective bays. Exploring the SJicyicJibi country (New Jer- 
sey) they arrived on the Hudson, to which they subse- 
quently gave the name of the MoJiicannittuck river. Re- 
turning to their nation, after a long absence, they reported 
their discoveries, describing the country they had visited 
as abounding in game and fruits, fish and fowl, and desti- 
tute of inhabitants. Concluding this to be the country 
destined for them by the Great Spirit, the Lenape proceeded 
to establish themselves upon the principal rivers of the east, 
making the Delaware, to which they gave the name of 
Lenape-iinJiittuck (the river or stream of the Lenape), the 
centre of their possessions. They say, however, that all of 
their nation who crossed the Mississippi did not reach this 
country, a part remaining behind to assist that portion of 
their people who, frightened by the reception which the 
Allegewi had given to their countrymen, fled far to the west of 
the Mississippi. They were finally divided into three great 
bodies, the larger half of the whole settled on the At- 
lantic, the other half was separated into two parts, the 
stronger continued beyond the Mississippi, the other re- 
mained on its eastern bank. Those on the Atlantic were 
subdivided into three tribes — the Turtle or Delawares of the 
sea shore ; the Turkeys or Delawares of the woods, and 
the Wolves or Delawares of the mountains. The two former 
inhabited the coast, from the Hudson to the Potomac, set- 
tling in small bodies in towns and villages upon the larger 
streams, under the chiefs subordinate to the great council 
of the nation. The Wolves or Minsi, called by the English 
Monseys, the most warlike of the three tribes, dwelt in the 
interior, forming a barrier between their nation and the 
Mcngwe. They extended themselves from the Minisink on 
the Delaware, where they held their council seat, to the 
Hudson on the east, to the Susquehanna on the southwest, 



8 

to the head waters of the Delaware and Susquehanna rivers 
on the north, and to that range of hills now known in New 
Jersey by the name of Muskenecun, and by those of Le- 
high and Conewago in Pennsylvania. Many subordinate 
tribes proceeded from these, who received names from their 
places of residence, or from some accidental circumstance, 
at the time of its occurrence remarkable, but now forgotten. 
Such probably were the Shawanese, the Nanticokes, the 
Susquehannas, the Neshamines, and other tribes resident in 
or near the province of Pennsylvania at the time of its set- 
tlement. The Mengwe hovered for some time on the border 
of the lakes, with their canoes in readiness to fly should the 
Allegewi return. Having grown bolder, and their numbers 
increasing, they stretched themselves along the St. Law- 
rence, and became, on the north, near neighbors to the 
Lenape tribes. The Mengwe and the Lenape in the pro- 
gress of time became enemies. The latter represent the 
former as treacherous and cruel, pursuing pertinaciously an 
insiduous and destructive policy toward their more gener- 
ous neighbors. Dreading the power of the Lenape, the 
Mengwe resolved to involve them in war with distant 
tribes, to reduce their strength. They committed murders 
upon the members of one tribe, and induced the injured 
party to believe they were perpetrated by another. They 
stole into the country of the Dclawares, surprised them in 
their hunting parties, slaughtered the hunters and escaped 
with the plunder. Each nation or tribe had a particular 
mark upon its war clubs which, left beside a murdered per- 
son, denoted the aggressor. The Mengwe perpetrated a 
murder in the Cherokee country, and left with the dead 
body a war club bearing the insignia of the Lenape. The 
Cherokees, in revenge, fell suddenly upon the latter and 
commenced a long and bloody war. The treachery of the 
Mengwe was at length discovered, and the Delawares turned 
upon them with the determination utterly to extirpate them. 



They were the more strongly induced to take this resolu- 
tion, as the cannibal propensities of the Mcngwe, according 
to Heckewelder, had reduced them, in the estimation of the 
Delawares, below the rank of human beings. Hitherto 
each tribe of the Mengwe had acted under the direction of 
its particular chiefs, and, although the nation could not 
control the conduct of its members, it was made responsible 
for their outrages. Pressed by the Lenape, they resolved 
to form a confederation which might enable them better to 
concentrate their force in war, and to regulate their affairs 
in peace. Thannawage, an a^ed Mohawk, was the project- 
or of this alliance. Under his auspices, five nations — the 
Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagoes, Cayugas and Senecas 
formed a species of republic, governed by the united coun- 
cils of their aged and experienced chiefs. To these a sixth 
nation, the Tuscaroras, was added in 17 12. This last origi- 
nally dwelt in the w^estern parts of North Carolina, but 
having formed a deep and general conspiracy to extermi- 
nate the whites, were, as stated in Smith's history of New^ 
York, driven from their country and adopted by the Iro- 
quois confederacy. The beneficial effects of this system 
early displayed themselves. The Lenape were checked, 
and the Mengwe, whose warlike disposition soon familiar- 
ized them with fire arms procured from the Dutch, were 
enabled, at the same time, to contend with them and to re- 
sist the French, who now attempted the settlement of 
Canada, and to extend their conquests over a large portion 
of the country between the Atlantic and Mississippi. But, 
being pressed hard by their new enemies, they became de- 
sirous of reconcilliation with their old enemies, and for this 
purpose, if the tradition of the Delawares be credited, 
they effected one of the most extraordinary strokes of policy 
which history has recorded. The mediators between the 
Indian nations at war are the women. The men, however 
weaiy of the contest, hold it cowardly and disgraceful to 



L 



10 

seek rcconcilliation. They deem it inconsistent in a war- 
rior to speak of peace with bloody weapons in his hands. 
He must maintain a determined courage, and appear at all 
times as ready and willing to fight as at the commencement 
of hostilities. With such dispositions, Indian wars would 
be interminable if the women did not interfere and persuade 
the combatants to bury the hatchet and make peace with 
each other. On these occasions the women pleaded their 
cause with much eloquence. "Not a warrior," they would 
say, "but laments the loss of a son, a brother or a friend. 
And mothers, who have borne with cheerfulness the pangs 
of child-birth, and the anxieties that wait upon the infancy 
and adolescence of their sons, behold their promised bless- 
ings crushed in the field of battle, or perishing at the stake 
in unutterable torments. In the depth of their grief they 
curse their wretched existence, and shudder at the idea of 
bearing children." They conjured the warriors, therefore, 
by their suffering wives, their helpless children, their homes 
and their friends, to interchange forgiveness, to cast away 
their arms, and smoking together the pipe of amity and 
peace, to embrace as friends those whom they had learned 
to esteem as enemies. Prayers thus urged seldom failed of 
their desired effect. The function of the peace-maker was 
honorable and dignified, and its assumption by a courageous 
and powerful nation could not be inglorious. This station 
the Meng-we urged upon the Lenape. "They had reflected," 
they said, "upon the state of the Indian race and were con- 
vinced that no means remained to preserve it unless some 
magnanimous nation would assume the character of the 
ivo))ian. It could not be given to a weak and contemptible 
tribe, such would not be listened to, but the Lenape and 
their allies would at once possess influence and commantl 
respect." The facts upon which these arguments were 
founded were known to the Delawares, and, in a moment 
of blind confidence in the sincerity of the Iroquois, they ac- 



II 

ceded to the proposition and assumed the petticoat. The 
ceremony of the metamorphosis was performed with great 
rejoicings at Albany, in 1617, in the presence of the Dutch, 
whom the Lenape charged with having conspired with the 
Mengwe for their destruction. Having thus disarmed the 
Delawares, the Iroquois assumed over them the rights of 
protection and command. But still dreading their strength, 
they artfully involved them again in war with the Chero- 
kees, promised to fight their battles, led them into an am- 
bush of their foes, and deserted them. The Delawares at 
length comprehended the treachery of their arch enemy, 
and resolved to resume their arms, and being still superior 
in numbers, to crush them. But it was too late. The 
Europeans were now making their way into the country in 
every direction, and gave ample employment to the aston- 
ished Lenape. The Mengwe denied these machinations. 
They averred that they conquered the Delawares by force 
of arms, and made them a subject people. And, though it 
was said they were unable to detail the circumstances of 
this conquest, it is more rational to suppose it true, than 
that a brave, numerous and warlike nation should have vol- 
untarily suffered themselves to be disarmed and enslaved 
by a shallow artifice, or, that discovering the fraud practiced 
upon them, they should unresistingly have submitted to its 
consequences. This conquest was not an empty acquisi- 
tion to the Mengwe. They claimed dominion over all the 
lands occupied by the Delawares, and, in many instances, 
their claims were distinctly acknowledged. Parties of the 
Five Nations occasionally occupied the Lenape country 
and wandered over it at all times at their pleasure. Event- 
ually, in i756,Teedyuscung, the noted Delaware chief, seems 
to have compelled the Iroquois to acknowledge the inde- 
pendence of his tribe, but the claim of superiority was often 
afterwards revived. 



12 

Tcedyuscung, according to his own statement, was born 
about the year 1700, in New Jersey, east of Trenton, in 
which neighborhood his ancestors of the Lenape had been 
seated from time immemorial. Old Captain Harris, a noted 
Delaware, was the father of Teedyuscung. The same was 
the father also of Captain John of Nazareth, of young Cap- 
tain Harris, of Tom, of Joe and of Sam Evans, a family of 
high spirited sons who were not in good repute with their 
white neighbors. The latter named them, it is true, for men 
of their own people, and Tcedyuscung they named "Honest 
John," yet they disliked and then feared them, for the Har- 
rises were known to grow moody and resentful, and were 
heard to speak threatening words as they saw their paternal 
acres passing out of their hands and their hunting grounds 
converted into pasture and ploughed fields. These they left 
with reluctance and migrated westward in company with 
others of the Turtles or Delawares of the lowlands, some 
from the Raritan, some from below Cranberry and Devil's 
Brook, some from the Neshannock, and some from the 
Mouth of Squan and the meadows on Little and Great Egg 
Harbor. Crossing the great river of their nation they 
entered the pro\'ince of Pennsj-hania in its Forks. This 
was about 1730. Finding no white men here they gypsied 
unmolested along the Lehieton, Martin's and Cobus creeks, 
the Manakasy, Gattoshacki and the Hockendocque.all south 
and along theAquanshicolaand Pocopoco north of the Blue 
Mountain. On crossing this barrier they reached the land 
of their kinsmen, the Wolf Delawares or Monseys. By 
these hardy mountaineers they were kindly received, and 
with them they would often speak of their compulsory exo- 
dus from the east, to which the Monseys made no reply, 
but only smiled. 

Scotch Irish immigrants began to crowd the Delawares 
in the Forks, south of the mountain, as early as 1735. Two 
)'ears prior whites had surve)'cd and located unpurchased 



13 

lands in the upper valley of the Delaware, thereby exasper- 
ating the Monseys and engendering in their hearts an im- 
placable resentment which they cherished long after the 
Turtle Delawares had buried the hatchet and were willing 
to treat for redress. These highlanders were the warriors 
who, moody and sullen, hung back at Trout Creek in July, 
1756, when Teedyuscung and his company were already in 
Easton engaged in negotiations for peace. In 1737 the 
one and a half day's walk was performed. Captain John 
and other Fork Indians south of the mountain were ex- 
pelled from their corn lands and peach orchards in 1742. 
Thus wrong was being heaped on wrong against a day of 
retribution. Zinzendorf's reconnoisance in July of that 
year introduced the Moravian missionaries into the homes 
of the Eastern Delawares, and from that time they preached 
the Gospel to them on both sides of the mountain. Teedy- 
uscung, too, heard them first on the Aquanshicola and 
then on the Mahoning. Impressed by the words of the 
plainly clad preachers from Bethlehem his religious feelings 
were moved, and a time came when he was convicted of sin 
and then sought for admission into Christian fellowship with 
the Mohicans and Delawares of Gnadenhutten near the 
mouth of Mahoning creek. Carbon county, by baptism. 
The brethren hesitated long before they acceded to his re- 
quest, for they tell us that the man was unstable as water, 
and like a reed shaken before the wind. Hence they 
granted him a time of probation, and as he reiterated his re- 
quest at its close they consented to admit him into their 
communion. On the twelfth of March, accordingly, he was 
baptized in the little turreted chapel on the Mahoning, 
Bishop Cammerhoff administering the rite. The ceremony 
was performed in accordance with the solemn ritual ob- 
served among the Moravians at that time in the baptism of 
adults, and when the straight limbed Delaware, robed in 
white, rose from bended knee, he rose as Gideon the name- 



14 

sake of "the son of Joash the Abiezrite, who threshed wheat 
in the wine press to hide it from the Midianites." Thus 
Teedj'uscung became a member of the Christian church, 
and yet failed as so many do to become a Christian. The 
lessons of the Divine Master whom he had promised to fol- 
low proved distasteful to him as he found they demanded 
renunciation of self, the practice of humility, the forgive- 
ness of injuries and the return of good for evil. They w^ere 
different from the doctrines taught in the school of nature 
in which he had long been educated. Hence he ill-brooked 
the restraints imposed upon him in the "Huts of Grace," 
and resisted the influence of the Good Spirit that sought to 
dispossess him of the resentment that burned within his 
soul when he remembered how his countrymen were being 
injured by the whites and how they had been traduced and 
were being oppressed by the imperious Iroquois. And 
once when his untamed brethren came down from the Min- 
nisinks to Gnadenhutten, bringing their unshod ponies and 
their broken flint locks to the smithy they opened their 
hearts to him wide and took him into their councils. These 
intended war. Telling him that the hour was come to pre- 
pare to rise against their oppressors they asked him to lead 
them and be their king. That was the evil moment in 
which he was dazzled by the prospect of a crown and traf- 
ficked his peace of mind for the unrest of ambition. This 
was in the spring of 1754. Mohican Abraham also turned 
renegade, and the two chieftains together prevailed with 
seventy of the congregation to remove to Wyoming. The 
Delaware chief at Wyoming was Tadame or Tamman)', of 
whom at this day but little is known. He was variously 
called Temane, Tamenand, Taminent, Tameny and Tam- 
many. According to one account he was the first Indian 
to welcome William Penn to this country, and was a party 
to Penn's famous treaty. A tradition is that the evil spirit 
sought to <zd'm a share in the administration of his kinef- 



15 

dom, but Tammany refused to hold intercourse with him. 
The enemy then resorted to strategy and attempted to enter 
his country, but was foiled by the chief, and at length de- 
termined to destroy him. A duel was waged for many 
moons, during which forests were trampled under foot, 
which have since remained prairie lands. Finally, Tam- 
many tripped his adversary, threw him to the ground, and 
would have scalped him, but the evil spirit extricated him- 
self and escaped to Manhattan Island, where he was wel- 
comed by the natives. Tammany appears to have been 
a brave and influential chieftain, and his nation reverenced 
his memory by bestowing his name upon those that de- 
served that honor. Thus when about 1 776 Col. George Mor- 
gan of Princeton visited the western Indians by direction of 
congress, the Delawares conferred on him the name of 
Tammany, as the greatest mark of respect which they could 
show to that gentleman, who, they said, had the same ad- 
dress, affability and meekness as their honored chief In 
the revolutionary war his enthusiastic admirers dubbed him 
a saint, and he was established under the name of St. Tam- 
many, the patron saint of America. His name was inserted 
in some calendars and his festival celebrated on the first 
day of May in every year. On that day a numerous society 
of his votaries walked together in procession, their hats 
decorated with bucks tails, and proceeded to a rural place 
which they called the wigwam, where, after a long talk or 
Indian speech had been delivered and the calumet of piece 
and friendship had been duly smoked, they spent the day in 
festivity and mirth. After dinner Indian dances were per- 
formed on the green in front of the wigwam, the calumet 
was again smoked and the company separated. He is now 
chiefly known as the patron of a democratic political orga- 
nization in New York city called the Tammany society. He 
was, however, treacherously murdered by some of the hostile 
Indians from the northwest, whereupon a general council 



i6 

of the Delawares was convened and Teedyuscung was 
chosen chief sachem and duly proclaimed as such. He was 
residin*^ at Gnadcnhuttcn at the time of his advancement, 
but immediately removed to Wyoming which then became 
the principal seat of the Delawares. In the summer of 
1743 an Indian council was convened in Philadelphia upon 
the invitation of Lieutenant Governor George Thomas, at 
that time administering the government of the Proprietaries, 
as William Penn and his successors were styled. The coun- 
cil was numerously attended, large delegations being present 
from each of the Six Nations, excepting the Senecas. Of 
these there were but three chiefs at the council — that nation 
having been prevented sending a stronger deputation by 
reason of a famine in their country "so great that a father 
had been compelled to sacrifice a part of his family, even 
his own children for the support and preservation of him- 
self and the other part." There seem likewise to have been 
no Mohawks present. But several tribes of the Delawares 
were represented. The chief object for the convocation 
of this council was "to kindle a new fire," and "strengthen 
the chain of friendship" with the Indians in anticipation of 
a war with P^rance. Other subjects were brought before 
the council for consideration. Among them the governor 
produced a quantity of goods — being, as he remarked, a bal- 
ance due the Indians for a section of the valley of the Sus- 
quehanna "on both sides of the river," which had been pur- 
chased of the Six Nations six years before. Canassatego, 
a celebrated Onondaga chief, who was the principal speaker 
on the part of the Indians during the protracted sittings of 
the council, recognized the sale of the land. But in the 
course of their discussions he took occasion to rebuke the 
whites for trespassing upon the unceded lands northward 
of the Kittatinny Hills, and also upon the Juniata. "That 
country," .said Canassatego, "belongs to us in right of con- 
quest, wc having bought it with our blood, and taken it 



from our enemies in fair war." This, however, was not the 
principal transaction estabHshing the fact that the Six 
Nations were in the exercise of absolute power over the 
Delawares. On the fourth day of the council the acting 
Governor called the attention of the Six Nations to the con- 
duct of "a branch of their cousins, the Delawares," in re- 
gard to a section of territory at the forks of the river which 
the Proprietaries had purchased of them fifty-five years be- 
fore, but from which the Indians had refused to remove. 
The consequence had been a series of unpleasant disturb- 
ances between the white settlers and the red men, and as 
the latter were ever prompt in calling upon the Proprietar- 
ies to remove white intruders from their lands, the acting 
Governor now in turn called upon the Six Nations to re- 
move those Indians from the land at the Forks which had 
been purchased and paid for in good faith such a long while 
ago. After three days consideration the Indians came again 
into council when Canassatego opened the proceedings by 
saying that they had carefully examined the case and "had 
seen with their own eyes" that their cousins had been "a 
very unruly people" and that they were "altogether in the 
wrong." They had therefore determined to remove them. 
Then turning to the Delawares, and holding a belt of wam- 
pum in his hand, he .spoke to them as follows : 

Cousins : Let this belt of wampum serve to chastise you. 
You ought to be taken by the hair of the head and shaken 
severely till you recover your senses and become sober. 
You don't know what ground you stand on, nor what you 
are doing. Our brother Onas' cause is very just and plain 
and his intentions are to preserve friendship. On the other 
hand your cause is bad, your heart far from being upright, 
and you are maliciously bent to break the chain of friend- 
ship with our brother Onas and his people. We have seen 
with our eyes a deed signed by nine of your ancestors about 
fifty years ago for this very land, and a release signed not 
many years since by some of yourselves and chiefs now 



livinf^, to tlic number of fifteen or upward. But how came 
you to take upon you to sell land at all. We conquered 
you, we made women of you, you know you are women 
and can no more sell land than women. Nor is it fit yoti 
should have the power of selling lands since you would 
abuse it. This land that you claim has gone through your 
bellies ; you have been furnished with clothes, meat and 
drink by the goods paid you for it, and now you want it 
again, like little children — as you are. But what makes 
you sell land in the dark ? Did we ever receive any part of 
it, even the value of a pipe shank from you for it? You 
have told us a blind story that you sent a messenger to us 
to inform us of the sale, but he never came among us nor 
did we ever hear anj'thing about it. This is acting in the 
dark and very different from the conduct our Six Nations 
observe in the sale of land. On such occasions they give 
public notice and invite all the Indians of their United 
Nations and give them all a share of the presents they re- 
ceive for their lands. This is the behavior of the wise 
United Nations. But we find you are none of our blood; 
you act a dishonest part, not only in this, but in other mat- 
ters ; your ears are ever open to slanderous reports about 
your brethren, you receive them with as much greediness 
as lewd women receive the embraces of bad men. And for 
these reasons we charge you to remove instantly. We 
don't give j-ou the liberty to think about it. You are women. 
Take the advice of a w ise man and remove immediately. 
You may return to the other side of the Delaware where you 
came from. But we do not know whether, considering how 
you have demeaned j'ourselves, }'ou will be permitted to 
live there, or whether you have not swallowed that land 
down }'our throats as well as the land on this side. We 
therefore assign }'ou two places to go to, either to Wyom- 
ing or Shamokin. You may go to either of these places, 
and then we shall have you more under our eye and shall 
see how you behave. Don't deliberate but remove away 
and take this belt of wampum. 

This speech ha\ing been translated into ICnglish and also 
in the Delaware tongue, Canassatego took another string 
of wampum and proceeded. 



19 

Cousins: After our just reproof and absolute order to 
depart from the land, you are now to take notice of what 
we have further to say to you. This string of wampum 
serves to forbid you, your children and grand-children to 
the latest posterity, forever meddling with land affairs. 
Neither you nor any that shall descend from you are ever 
hereafter to presume to sell any land, for which purpose you 
are to preserve this string in memory of what your uncles 
have this day given you in charge. We have some other 
business to transact with our brethren, and therefore depart 
the council and consider what has been said to you. 

There was no diplomatic mincing of words in the speech 
of the Onondaga chieftain. He spoke not only with the 
bluntness of unsophisticated honesty, but with the air of 
one having authority, nor dared the Delawares to disobey 
his peremptory command. They immediately left the coun- 
cil and soon afterwards removed from the disputed terri- 
tory — some few of them to Shamokin, but the greater por- 
tion to Wyoming. The removal of the Delawares from the 
Forks to Wyoming was as speedy as the order to that end 
had been peremptory. Some years before the Wyoming 
Valley had been allotted by the Delawares to a strong clan 
of the Shawanese. These latter had planted themselves 
upon the flats on the west bank of the river (Plymouth), 
and on their arrival at the same place the Delawares 
selected as the site of the town they were to build the beauti- 
ful plain on the eastern side near what is now known as the 
slaughter houses in the lower end of this city. Here was 
built the town of Maugh-wau-wa-me, the original of Wyom- 
ing. Meantime the Nanticokc Indians had removed from 
the eastern shore of Maryland to the lower part of the 
Wyoming Valley, which }'et retains their name. The Shaw- 
anese made no opposition to the arrival of their new neigh- 
bors. The Wanamesc, under their chief, Jacob, resided on 
the east side of the Susquehanna above Mill Creek, known 
as Jacob's Plains. The Mohicans came to W}'oming with 



20 

the Delawares in 1742, and under their chief, Abram, built 
a village above Forty Fort known as Abram's Plains. 
Besides these there were a few wigwams on Shickshinny 
and VVapwallopen creeks, and in Salem township near Beach 
Haven. There was also a considerable Delaware village 
at Nescopeck and one on the east bank of the Susquehanna 
about two miles above the mouth of the Lackawanna called 
Asserughney. There was a Shawanese village west of Ross 
Hill, between Plymouth and Kingston. These are all the 
known locations of Indian villages within the limits of Lu- 
zerne county. The P'rcnch, through the influence of Cath- 
olic missionaries who are often in advance of other denomi- 
nations, had secured to their interest the Shawanese, the 
Delawares and other Indians on the Ohio. However, Sir 
William Johnson had succeeded in dividing the Six Nations. 
The Mohawks, Oneidas and Tuscaroras remained attached 
to the British cause. The Onodagas, Cayugas and Senecas 
declared themselves neutral, nevertheless a considerable 
number of the two last tribes took up the hatchet with the 
Delawares. Shawanese and other tribes already in alliance 
with the French. PLfforts were made b}- the P^rcnch through 
the Senecas and Cayugas to induce the Susquehanna In- 
dians to declare in fa\or of Onontio, the P'rench King, as 
the Indians named him. Their arts and promises were 
crowned with success. In 1753 they succeeded in remov- 
ing nearly all of the Christian Indians from Gnadenhutten 
to Wyoming, hoping by this to place them beyond the in- 
fluence of the whites. The news of Braddock's defeat in 
July, 1755, spread rapidly over the country, cariying dis- 
may to the hearts of the English settlers. The frontiers of 
Penns)'lvania were threatened with ruin by the victorious 
French and their savage allies. The government of Penn- 
sylvania did not act with the energy and promptness which 
the emergency demanded. No means were adopted for the 
protection of the frontier settlements, and murders were 



21 

committed by the skulking enemy in many places in the 
north and west of the province. The assembly, in one of 
their messages, said : "What has this government done to of- 
fend the Delawares and Shawanese ? Have we not always 
lived in peace with them ? Why are they offended ? Let 
us hold a treaty with them and persuade them ?" Such was 
the ridiculous language of the assembly when the lives of 
hundreds were trembling in the balance. "What has this 
government done to offend the Delawares," asked the as- 
sembly. The words and deeds of Teedyuscung proclaim 
the deep seated offense and its cause. Sending a large 
belt of wampum to the Susquehanna Indians, and even to 
the Cherokees in the south, he said: "I am in exceeding 
great danger, the English will kill me, come and help me?" 
The Delaware town at Nescopeck was made the rendezvous 
of the warriors. There assembled Shingas with his western 
warriors, and Buchshanoath the great Shawanese war chief 
of Wyoming. With these Teedyuscung attacked the set- 
tlements in Berks county, November i6, 1755, spreading 
fire and death in all directions. On the twenty-fourth of the 
same month Gnadenhutten was attacked, a number of the 
people were murdered and the buildings were laid in ashes. 
It is said the murderers of the people at Gnadenhutten were 
commanded by a chief of the Six Nations and not by Teedy- 
uscung. In the beginning of December of the same year a 
council of war was held at Wyoming by the Delawares, the 
Shawanese, the Nanticokcs and others, at which it was de- 
termined to lay waste the whole country on the Delaware. 
They danced the war dance and sang their death songs. 
At the appointed time the paths between Wyoming and the 
Delaware, over which the missionaries had so often carried 
the white flag of peace and good will, were crowded with 
hostile savages on an errand of blood and death. Two 
hundred warriors rushed from the mountain side upon the 
defenceless settlements. Nearly the whole of Marshall's 



22 

family, the mnn who performed the walk and afterwards 
declared that the Penn's refused to pay him, were put to 
death. Teedyuscung, at the head of a scoutint^ p^'^i'ty, fired 
into a company assembled at a funeral. He penetrated 
into New Jersey and even approached within a few miles 
of Easton. During the month of December fifty dwelling 
houses were burned in Northampton county, upwards of 
one hundred men, women and children were murdered and 
scalped, and nearly as many were carried away into captiv- 
ity. This destruction of life and property is attributable 
to the quarrel which existed between the governor and as- 
sembly in reference to taxing the proprietaries' estates. The 
assembly were wholly inexcusable for their neglect of the 
public defense at that critical period. The great body of 
the Indians in Pennsylvania who were disposed to arm 
against the French, being left to themselves and unsup- 
ported by the government, were easily persuaded by the 
promises and presents of the French agents to make war 
against the English. Paxinos, an aged Shawanese chief re- 
siding at Wilkes-Barre, was a friend of the P^nglish. It was 
he who, in the interview with Charles Broadhead, on Nov- 
ember 9, 1755, «it Wyoming, urged upon him to send a 
messenger to the Indians in the valley with belts of wam- 
pum and presents to secure them to the P2nglish interest. 
The message contained a warm and pressing inxitation to 
all the Indians to attend a treaty to be held on January i, 
1756, at John Harris's. But before the messenger started 
on his dangerous journey Tecd}'uscung had devastated the 
country of the Dclawares, and among others the plantations 
of Mr. Broadhead and of Aaron Dupuy, who had been 
selected to bear the message to the Wyoming Indians. On 
January i, he was engaged with thirty of his warriors in 
scalping the remaining inhabitant-^ and burning their dwell- 
ings in Smithficld township, Monroe county. To return 
to P.ixiiios. He used cverv' argument to dissuatle the Del- 



23' 

awares and his own warriors from taking up the hatchet 
against the EngUsh. He pressed his solicitations with such 
zeal that the Delawares threatened to take his life. When 
the warriors began to dance the war dance he, with Abram 
and about thirty others, chiefly old men and women, retired 
to a village west of Kingston, near Blindtown, where he re- 
mained until all the Indians departed the valley for the 
country of the Six Nations. On January i, 1756, Bucks- 
henoath, leading a party of savages, attacked and put to 
flight a company of forty soldiers at Gnadenhutten, sent to 
erect a fort at that place. Buckshenoath was a co-worker 
with Teedyuscung in his expedition against the English. 
At this time Teedyuscung captured Peter Hess and others. 
On his return to Wyoming with his booty and his prisoners 
he encamped for the night on the Pokono mountain. Here 
the savages killed Peter Hess, cutting him almost in pieces 
with their knives, and tied 'the others to trees. They 
kindled a large fire, but the night was so cold they could 
not sleep. At daylight they set out and arrived at Wyom- 
ing in the evening. They found the valley deserted. The 
party pushed on to Tunkhannock, were they found about 
one hundred men, women and children, and where the 
prisoners remained until the cold weather was over. They 
were afterwards taken to Diahoga and stayed there until 
they were brought down and delivered up to their friends 
at the treaty at Easton in the following November. In 
April Governor Morris, with the approval of the Supreme 
Executive Council, except James Logan, who entered his 
protest, issued a declaration of war against the Delawares 
and their associates, and offered the foUoiviug bounties for 
scalps and prisoners: For a male Indian prisoner abox-e 
twelve years of age, delivered at the government forts or 
towns, one hundred and fifty dollars ; for every male or fe- 
male prisoner twelve years old or under, one hundred and 
thirty dollars ; for the scalp of every male Indian above 



24 

twelve years old, one hundred and thirty dollars, and for 
the scalp of an Indian woman, fifty dollars. Through the 
influence of General Johnson, afterwards Sir William John- 
son, with the Six Nations, the way was paved for a council 
with Teedyuscung. The declaration of war was suspended 
for thirty days, and Captain Newcastle and two other friend- 
ly Indians, in May, set out for Diahoga. Passing through 
Wyoming they found that the entire Indian population 
from Shamokin to Wyalusing had gone northward. In the 
valley there reigned the silence of the grave. At Diahoga, 
Newcastle found Teedyuscung in council with the chiefs of 
the Six Nations. But soon the Delawares, Shawanese, 
Monseys and Mohicans assembled to hear what Newcastle 
had to say. He delivered Governor Morris' message, in- 
viting them to a council to be held at hlaston in July. He 
was favorably answered by Teedyuscung and Paxinos, when 
he took his departure. In July, on the day appointed, 
Teedyuscung, with a few of his warriors, arrived in Easton, 
where he was met by the governor and his councilors. 
The Delaware king opened the council by saying he had 
come as the messenger of ten nations, meaning the Six 
Nations, and the four who were convened to hear Newcastle^ 
at Diahoga. He wished to hear what the governor had to 
say. "If it be good I shall lay hold of it and carry it to the 
United Nations who will smile and be pleased to hear good 
news, and if what you say be disagreeable, I will, notwith- 
standing, keep it close (closing his fist), and deliver it faith- 
fully to the nations. Hearken to what I say. Abundance 
of confusion, disorder and distraction have arisen among 
Indians from people taking upon them to be kings and per- 
sons of authority. With every tribe of Indians there have 
been such pretenders, who have held treaties, sometimes 
public, sometimes in the bushes. Sometimes what they did 
was come to be known, but frequently remained in darkness. 
To some they held up their belts, but (-)thcrs ne\er saw 



25 

them. This bred among the Indians heart-burnings and 
quarrels, and I can assure you that the present clouds do, 
in a great measure, owe their rise to this wild and irregular 
way of doing business, and the Indians will have no more 
transactions in the dark." Here he presented the governor 
a string of wampum. Being asked if he had done speak- 
ing, he said he had for the present. The main thing he 
added is yet in my breast, laying his hand on his heart, but 
this will depend on what words the governor will speak to 
us. Then he repeated the Delaware word Wliishskiksy, 
the same in the Mohawk as lago, with great earnestness 
and a very pathetic tone, meaning be strong, look about, 
active. The governor then spoke : "Brother, I have heard 
with attention all you have said, and thank you for the 
openness with which you have declared your sentiments." 
After delivering a lengthy speech he presented many belts 
and assured the Indians of his desire for peace. To which 
Teedyuscung replied as follows : "Brother, this belt," lift- 
ing up a large string of wampum, "denotes that our uncles, 
the Six Nations, have lately renewed their covenant chain 
with us. Formerly we were accounted women and em- 
ployed only in women's business, but now they have made 
men of us, and as such are now come to this treaty, having 
this authority as a man to make peace. I have it in my 
hand, but have not opened it, but will soon declare it to the 
other nations. This belt holds together ten nations. We are 
in the middle, between the French and English. Look at it. 
This belt further denotes that whoever will not comply with 
the terms of peace the ten nations will strike him. See the 
dangerous circumstances I am in — strong men on both sides; 
hatchets on both sides. Whoever is for peace him will I join. 
Brother, this is a good day. Whoever will make peace let 
him lay hold of this belt." Here the governor took hold of 
the belt and said that he was pleased with what the king 
had said. The figures on the belt were then explained — the 



26 

English were represented on one end, the French on the 
other, and the land of the Indians lay between them. Teedy- 
uscung and his son then dined with the governor, soon 
after which he departed for Diahoga. Major Parsons, at 
this council, was requested to keep a written memoranda of 
the general behavior and conversation of the king, from 
which it would seem that the high position assumed arid 
maintained by him in council was hardly compatible or 
consistent with his ordinary life. "The king and his wild 
company were perpetually drunk, very much on Gascoon, 
and at times abusive to the inhabitants, for they all spoke 
English, more or less. The king wAs full of himself, say- 
ing frequently that which side soever lie took must stand 
and the other fall, repeating it with insolence that he came 
from the French who had pressed him much to join them 
against the English, that now he was in the middle, between 
the French and the luiglish, quite disengaged from both 
sides, and whether he joined with the English or French, 
he would publish it aloud to the world, that all nations 
might know it. * * * He is a lusty, raw-boned man, 
haughty and very desirous of respect and command ; he 
can drink three quarts or a gallon of rum a day without 
being drunk ; he was the man that persuaded the Delawares 
to go over to the French and then attack our frontiers, and 
he and those with him have been concerned in the mischief 
done to the inhabitants of Northampton county. Some of 
the Indians said that between forty or fifty of their people 
came to Diahoga from one of the lakes about the time they 
set out, in order to fall upon our inhahit.uits, and addressed 
Teedyuscung to head them, but he told them he was going 
to the governor of Pennsj'lvania to treat with him concern- 
ing a peace, which the Mohawks had advised him to do, 
and therefore he ordered them to sit still till he came back 
again to them. The townspeople observed that the shirts 
which the Indian women had on were made of Dutch table- 



27 

cloths, which it is supposed they took from the people they 
murdered on our frontiers. The king, in one of his conver- 
sations, said that only two hundred French and about eighty 
Indians were at the lake, where most of the English are, 
and that he could bring the most or all of them off. The 
governor invited Teedyuscung and the Ijidians to dine with 
him, but before dinner the king, with some of them, came 
to the governor and made the governor four speeches, giv- 
ing four strings of wampum, after the Indian manner ; one 
to brush thorns from the governor's legs, another to rub the 
dust out of his eyes to help him see clearly, another to 
open his ears, and the fourth to clear his throat that he 
might speak plainly. Teedyuscung claimed to be king of 
ten nations. Being asked what ten nations, he answered, 
the united Six Nations — Mohawks, Onondagos, Oncidas, 
Senecas, Cayugas and Tuscaroras, and four others — Dela- 
wares, Shawanese, Mohicans and Munsies, who would all 
ratify what he should do. He carried the belt of peace 
with him, and whoever would might take hold of it. But 
as to them that refused, the rest would all join together and 
fall upon them. All the Indians, in short, would do as he 
would have them, as he was the great man. The governor 
used the same four ceremonies to Teedyuscung, accom- 
panied with four strings of wampum, after which the gov- 
ernor and Indians went to dinner, escorted by a detachment 
of the First Battalion of the Pennsylvania Regiment." Con- 
rad Weiser, the interpreter, was first introduced to Teedy- 
uscung at this time, who, after watching his movements a 
single day, reported to the council "that the king and the 
principal Indians being all yesterday under the force of 
liquor, he had not been favored with so good an opportu- 
nity as he could have wished of making himself acquainted 
with their history, but in the main he believed Teedyus- 
cung was well inclined ; he talked in high terms of his own 
merit, but expressed himself a friend to this province." 



28 

Tcedyuscung at this council was alleged to have been the 
instigator of the Indian outrages upon the whites in 1755, 
by sending large belts of wampum to various tribes on the 
war path, but the shrewd informer or negotiator, with a 
view of personal advantage and emolument, informed Gov- 
ernor Morris that as Teedyuscung had brought on the war, 
he was the only person that could effect a peaceful solution 
of all Indian affairs. To do this "Teedyuscung must have 
a belt of wampum at least five or six feet long and twelve 
rows broad, and besides the belt, he must have twelve strings 
to send to the several chiefs to confirm the words that he 
sends." Pursuant to arrangement made before he left, 
Teedyuscung promised to return to another council to be 
held in Easton in November. He returned to Easton Nov- 
ember 8, 1756, and brought with him four chiefs of the 
Six Nations, sixteen Delaware Indians, two Shawanese and 
six Mohicans. Imposing ceremonies, both for state and 
securit}', were kept up throughout the negotiations. At 
three o'clock Gox'ernor Denny marched from his lodgings 
to the place of conference, guarded by a party of the Royal 
Americans in front and on the flanks, and a detachment of 
Col. Weiser's Provincials in subdivisions in the rear, with 
colors flying, drums beating and music playing, which 
order was always observed in going to the place where the 
council was held. Teedyuscung performed the part of 
chief speaker on this occasion for all of the tribes present, as 
he had done at the preceding conference. He is represented 
to have supported the rights and claims of the Indians in a 
dignified and spirited manner. If his people had cowered 
like cravens before the rebukes of the Six Nations in the 
council of 1742, their demeanor was far otherwise on this 
occasion. The chieftain's imposing presence, his earnest- 
ness of appeal and his impassioned orator)', as he plead the 
cause of the long injured Lenape evoked the admiration of 
his enemies themselves. He alwa)-s .spoke in the euphon- 



29 

ious Delaware, employing this Castillian of the new world 
to utter the simple and expressive figures and tropes of the 
native rhetoric with which his harangues were replete, 
although he was conversant with the white man's speech. 
It would almost appear from the minutes of these confer- 
ences that the English artfully attempted to evade the point 
at issue and to conciliate the indignant chieftain by fair 
speeches and uncertain promises. The hollowness of the 
former he boldly exposed, and the latter he scornfully re- 
jected, so that it was soon perceived that the Indian king 
was as astute and sagacious as he was unmovable in the 
justice of his righteous demands. On being requested by 
the governor to state the causes of their uneasiness and 
subsequent hostilities, Teedyuscung enumerated several. 
Among them were the abuses committed upon the Indians 
in the prosecution of their trade, being unjustly deprived of 
portions of their lands, and in the execution, long before, 
in New Jersey, of a Delaware chief named Wekahelah, for, 
as the Indians allege, accidently killing a white man — 
a transaction which they said they could not forget. 
When the governor desired specifications of the alleged 
wrong, Teedyuscung replied : "The kings of England and 
France have settled or wrought this land so as to coop us 
up as if in a pen. I have not far to go for another instance. 
This very ground that is under me (striking it with his 
foot), was my land and inheritance, and is taken from me 
by fraud. When I say this ground, I mean all the land 
lying between Tohiccon creek and Wyoming, on the river 
Susquehanna. I have not only been served so in this gov- 
ernment, but the same thing has been done to me as to 
several tracts in New Jersey, over the river." When asked 
what he meant by fraud, Teedyuscung replied : "Where one 
man had formerly liberty to purchase land, and he took the 
deeds from the Indians and then dies, and after his death 
his children forge a deed like the true one, with the same 



30 

Indian names to it, and thereby take lands from the Indians 
which they never sold, it is fraud. Also, when one chief 
has land beyond the river and another chief has land on 
this side, both -bounded by rivers, mountains and springs 
which cannot be moved, and the proprietaries, ready to 
purchase lands, buy of one chief what belongs to another. 
This likewise is fraud. When I had agreed to sell certain 
lands to the old proprietor by the course of the river, the 
young proprietors came and got it run by a straight course 
by the compass, and by that means took in double the 
quantity intended to be sold. This he thought was fraud." 
He said the Dclawarcs had never been satisfied with the 
conduct of the latter since the treaties of 1737, when their 
fathers sold them the lands on the Delaware. He said that 
although the land sold was to have gone only "as far as a 
man could go in a day and a half from Nasliamony creek ^ 
yet the person who measured the ground did not walk but 
ran. He was moreover, as they supposed, to follow the 
winding bank of the river, whereas he went in a straight line. 
And because the Indians had been unwilling to give up the 
land as far as the walk extended, the governor then having 
the command of the English, sent for their cousins, the Six 
Nations, who had always been hard masters to them, to 
come down and drive them from their land. When the Six 
Nations came down the Delawares met them at a great 
treaty, held at the governor's house, at Philadelphia, for the 
purpose of explaining why they did not give up the land, 
but the English made so many presents to the Six Nations 
that their ears were stopped. They would listen to no ex- 
planation, and Canassatego had moreover abused them 
and called them women. The Six Nations, had, however, 
given to them and the Shawanese the lands upon the Sus- 
quehanncf and the Juniata for hunting grounds, and had so 
informed the governor, but notwithstanding this the whites 
wore allowed to go and settle upon those lands. Two years 



3^ 

ago moreover the governor had been to Albany to buy 
some hmds of the Six Nations, and had described their pur- 
chase hy poitits of compass which the Indians did not under- 
stand, including lands both upon the Juniata and the Sus- 
quehanna, which they did not intend to sell. When all 
those things were known to the Indians, they declared they 
wouuld no longer be friends to the English, who were try- 
ing to get all their country away from them. He, how- 
ever, assured the council that they were nevertheless glad 
to meet their old friends, the English, again, and to smoke 
the pipe of peace with them. He also hoped that justice 
would be done to them for all the injuries they had received. 
The council continued nine days and Governor Denny 
appears to have conducted himself with so much tact and 
judgment as greatly to conciliate the good will of tlie In- 
dians. By his candid and ingenious treatment of them as 
some of the Mohawks afterwards expressed it, "he put his 
hands into Teedyuscung's bosom and was so successful as 
to draw out the secret which neither Sir William Johnson 
nor the Six Nations could do." The result was a reconcil- 
iation of the Delawares of the Susquehanna with the Eng- 
lish, and a treaty of peace upon the basis that Teedyuscung 
and his people were to be allowed to remain upon the 
Wyoming lands, and that houses were to be built for them 
by the proprietaries. There were, however, several matters 
left unadjusted, although the governor desired that every 
difficulty should then be discussed and every cause of com- 
plaint, as far as he possessed the power, be removed. But 
Teedyuscung replied that he was not empowered at the 
present time to negotiate upon several of the questions of 
grievance that had been raised, nor were all the parties in- 
terested properly represented in the council. He therefore 
proposed the holding of another council in the following 
spring at Lancaster. This proposition was acceded to, and 
many Indians collected at the time and place appointed. 



32 

Sir William Johnson despatched a deputation of the Six 
Nations thither under the charije of Col. Cro^han, the 
deputy superintendent of the Indians, but for some reason 
unexplained, neither Teedyuscung nor the Delawares from 
Wyoming attended the council, though of his own appoint- 
ment. Col. Croghan wrote to Sir William, however, that the 
meeting was productive of great good in checking the war 
upon the frontier ; and in a speech to Sir William, delivered 
by the Senecas in June following, they claimed the credit, 
by their mediation, of the partial peace that had been ob- 
tained. The conduct of Teedyuscung on that occasion was 
severely censured by Sir William in a speech to the Onon- 
dagos, Cayugas and Senecas, ^nd the latter were charged by 
the baronet to take the subject in liand and "talk to him," 
and should they find him in fault "make him sensible of it." 
In 1757, Teedyuscung requested the governor of Pennsyl- 
vania to so fix and define his land, around his village on the 
Susquehanna, that "his children can never sell or yours ever 
buy them," and to remain so forever. He also asked the 
proprietary government to assist him in building houses at 
Wyoming before corn-planting time. Ten log houses 
"twenty feet by fourteen in the clear, and one twenty-four 
by sixteen of squared logs and dovetailed," were built for 
him in 1758. These were the first dwelling houses erected 
in W\'oming. Other buildings were subsequently erected 
there. To check or crush the ambitious projects of New 
l"lngland men about forming a colony at Wyoming, in- 
fluenced their erection by Pennsylvania quite as much as 
any especial regard for the Delaware sachem. One of the 
masons was killed and scalped by six hostile Indians while 
engaged in this labor. The influence of Sir William John- 
son, agent for Indian affairs, was invoked to bring the Six 
Nations to a new congress. Neither presents nor promises 
were spared, and in October, 1758, there was opened at 
Easton, one of the most imposing assemblages ever beheld 



33 

in Pennsylvania. Chiefs from the Six Nations were there, 
namely : Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagos, Cayugas, Sene- 
cas and Tuscaroras. There were also present ambassadors 
from the tributory tribes of Nanticokes, Canoys, Turteloes, 
Chenangoes, Delawares, Unamies, Minisinks, Wapingers 
and Shawanese. Both the governors of Pennsylvania and 
New Jersey attended, with Sir William Johnson and George 
Croghan, sub-Indian agent, a deputation from the Provin- 
cial assembly of New Jersey, and a large concourse of emi- 
nent citizens from Philadelphia and the neighboring coun- 
ties. Teedyuscung, on the way to the conference, having 
fallen in company with the chief who had commanded the 
expedition against Gnaddenhutten and Fort Allen, high 
words arose between them, when the king raised his toma- 
hawk and laid the chief dead at his feet. From this mo- 
ment, though vengeance might slumber, he was a doomed 
man, a sacrifice alike to policy and revenge. At the con- 
gress Teedyuscung, eloquent and of imposing address, took 
at first a decided lead in the debates. But one of the 
chiefs of the Six Nations, on the other hand, expressed in 
strong language his resentment against the British colonists 
who had killed and imprisoned some of his tribe, and he, 
as well as other chiefs of those nations, took great umbrage 
at the importance assumed by Teedyuscung, whom, as one 
of the Delawares, they considered in some degree subject 
to their authority. Teedyuscung, however, supported the 
high station which he held with dignity and firmness, and 
the different Indian tribes at length became reconciled to 
each other. The conference having continued eighteen 
da)'s and all causes of misunderstanding between the Eng- 
lish and Indians being remo\ed, a general peace was con- 
cluded on October 26. At this treaty the boundaries of the 
different purchases made from the Indians were more par- 
ticularly described and they received an additional compen- 
sation for their lands, consisting of knives, hats, caps, look- 



34 

ing glasses, tobacco boxes, shears, gunlocks, combs, clothes, 
shoes, stockings, blankets and several suits of laced clothes 
for their chieftains, and when the business of the treaty was 
completed the stores of rum were opened and distributed to 
the Indians, who soon exhibited a scene of brutal intoxica- 
tion. Great offence, it appears, was given to the ambassadors 
of the Six Nations at the consequence assumed, and the for- 
ward part taken, by Teedyuscung, and yet no immediate 
measures were adopted to chastise his supposed contumacy. 
A solution of what might otherwise seem difficult, both in 
his more bold, independent conduct and the forbearance of 
the Iroquois, may be found in the fact that the power of 
their allies, was already sensibly shaken and Great Britain 
was preparing with unexampled vigor to drive the French 
from this continent. Fort William was taken in 1757, 
Louisburg surrendered to their victorious arms in the sum- 
mer of 1758, and far more important to the Iroquois, as it 
was almost in the heart of the dominions claimed by them, 
the shame of Braddock's defeat was washed out, and Fort 
Du Quesne (afterwards named Fort Pitt), had surrendered 
to the English the February preceding the October of 1758, 
when the conferences at Easton were holden. That event 
was a fatal blow to the widely extended claim of power on 
the pari of the confederacy, although the council fire at 
Onondago was for many years after numerously surrounded 
by bold and ambitious chiefs and renowned warriors. In 
1753 an association of persons, principally inhabitants of 
Connecticut, was formed for the purpose of commencing a 
settlement in that portion of the Connecticut territories 
which lay westward of the province of New York. Agents 
were accordingly sent out for the pur(oose of exploring the 
country and selecting a proper district. The beautiful val- 
ley upon the Susquehanna river in which the Indians of the 
Delaware.: tribe, ^L'leven )'ears before, had built their town of 
\\'\'oniing, attracted the attention of the agents, antl as they 



35 

found the Indians apparently very friendly, and a consider- 
able portion of the valley unoccupied, except for purposes 
of hunting, they reported in favor of commencing their set- 
tlements at that place and of purchasing the lands of the 
Six Nations of Indians, residing near the great lakes, who 
claimed all the lands upon the Susquehanna. This report 
was adopted by the company, and at a general meeting of 
commissioners from all the English American colonies, in 
pursuance of his majesty's instruction, for the purpose of 
forming a general treaty with the Indians, it was considered 
that a favorable opportunity would then be presented for 
purchasing the Wyoming lands. When the general con- 
gress of commissioners assembled at Albany the agents ap- 
pointed by the Susquehanna company attended also, and 
having successfully effected the objects of their negotiation, 
obtained from the principal chiefs of the Six Nations, on the 
I ith day of July, 1754, a deed of the lands on the Susque- 
hanna, including Wyoming and the country westward to 
the waters of the Allegheny. In the summer of 1755 the 
Susquehanna company, having, in the month of May pre- 
ceding, procured the consent of the legislature of Connecti- 
cut for the establishment of a settlement, and if his majesty 
should consent, of a separate government within the limits 
of their purchase, sent out a number of persons to take pos- 
session of their lands at Wyoming, but finding the Indians 
in a state of war with the white people, the settlement of 
the country was at that time deemed impracticable. Tcedy- 
uscung, in September, 1760, being in Philadelphia, had a 
conference with Lieutenant Governor Hamilton, in which 
he said: "Brother, I am ready to set out, but have heard 
yesterday some bad news which obliges me once more to 
wait on you. Yesterday I w^as told that some of the New 
I^ngland people are going on the west side of Susque- 
hannah with intent to settle the lands at Wyomink ; if this 
should be the case then all the pains that have been taken 



36 

by this government and me will be to no purpose. It is 
the Indians' land and the}' will not suffer it to be settled. I 
therefore desire the (governor will send a smart letter to the 
government where those intruding people came from, to 
forbid this proceeding, and tell their governor plainly that 
if they do not go away the Indians will turn them off;" he 
added with a great deal of warmth, "these people cannot 
pretend ignorance, and if they shall then continue on the 
lands it will be their own fault if anything happens," and re- 
peated his entreaties to the governor to take every measure 
in his power to prevent the settlement of those lands, for it 
will certainly bring on another Indian war. The governor 
informed Teedyuscung that he had, the other day, received 
some information of this matter and that as the justices of 
the peace were holding a court at Easton, he ordered the 
sheriff and some of the said justices to go to the place 
where it is said these New l^ngland men are settling, and 
if they find any people settling, to let them know they 
are sent by this government to warn them off, show them 
the bad consequences that would ensue on such an en- 
croachment on lands belonging to the Indians and the pro- 
prietaries, and forthwith to report what they find doing, 
that proper measures may be taken to prevent it. Teedy- 
uscung further desired that he might be made acquainted 
with whatever is doing of this sort, for if the governor can't 
the Indians will put a stop to it, and he was answered that 
he should certainly be informed of it. On April 6, 1761, 
Teedyuscung was again in Philadelphia with some of the 
Delaware and Opies Indians, and had another conference 
with Lieutenant Go\'ernor 1 lamilton. He spoke as follows : 
"Brother, I ha\c, for four or fi\e years, been constantly em- 
ployed in promoting the good work of peace, and now 
something looks darkish and unless what makes it look so 
be removed, it may be hurtful to our old men, women and 
children, notwithstanding all that has been done. Brother, 



37 

I never did hide anything in my heart, and I desire if the 
governor has anything in his heart that he would not hide 
it. This is the way to keep all things right between us, 
which cannot be done if we hide from one another what 
is upon our minds. Brother, you may remember that when 
I was here in the fall of the year I informed you that some 
New England people were settling the Indian lands near a 
place called Cushietunck, and expressed a great deal of un- 
easiness at it. You told me that you had likewise heard 
something of it, and had sent the sheriff and magistrates of 
the county, bordering on these lands, to the place, with 
orders to see what was doing, and to warn any persons off 
whom they should (find) settling there. You likewise said 
that as soon as you should be informed by these people of 
what they should find doing there you would send a mes- 
sage to the government of Connecticut to know if they 
were abetted by it and what were their future designs. 
Brother, I have not heard anything from you since that 
time, and our people are become so uneasy at this new set- 
tlement that several of them are moved away to other places 
and these now present are come on purpose with me to 
hear what you have to say about this affair. Brother, some 
of the Opies were coming to settle at Wyomink, but being 
disturbed at what they hear, they have sent their king that 
they may hear what you have to say, and knaw the matter 
from you before they proceed further. So many stories 
were brought to Wyomink that I, myself, was almost ready 
to leave my house, but I thought I would come and see 
you first and consult with you about it. Brother, the 
reason why we were so uneasy is this : About three weeks 
ago Robert White came to our town, along with Tiiomas 
King, one of the Six Nation Indians, and told us they had 
been at Cushietunck among these people, and that Sir Wil- 
liam Johnson had sent to warn them off if they intended to 
settle there ; if only to trade, then he desired they would 



38 

use the Indians well and give them no offense. But they 
made very light of it, and said they would not regard either 
what Sir William Johnson should say, nor the governor of 
Pennsylvania, nor the magistrates, but only what should 
come from their own governor. They said they had bought 
that land from some Indians who were at the last treaty at 
Easton, and would settle there. They said likewise, that 
in the spring when there should be plenty of grass they 
would come and settle the lands at Wyomink, and that 
Thomas King had given leave to settle the Wyomink land, 
and if the Indians who lived there should hinder their set- 
tlement, they would fight it out with them and the strongest 
should hold the land. Robert White added that they told 
him that they should be four thousand strong in the spring 
and would all come to Wyomink. Robert White told us 
further that they kept continued watch for fear the Indians 
should shoot them." Tecdyuscung being asked how many 
Robert White found there, he answered that Robert White 
told them there were thirty families. Another conference 
was held with the same Indians and Governor Peters on 
April 1 1. The governor acquainted Teedyuscung that he 
would now give him an answer to his speech, and then be- 
gan as follows : "Brother, I readily- acknowledge the zeal 
with which you have for some years past concurred with 
this government in promoting the good work of peace, and 
it is owing, in a great measure, to your endeavors that the 
same has been brought to an happy conclusion. Brother, 
)-ou will please to obser\c that the people who arc attempt- 
ing to settle your lands, and in so doing justl}' gi\e you so 
much uneasiness, are none of them of this pro\ince, they 
come from a distant government and set up pretentions for 
this land partly under the charter of Connecticut, the colony 
from whence they came, and partly under what they call 
Indian purchases, for besides what they told Robert White, 
that they had {)urchased that land from some Indians that 



39 

were at the last treaty at Easton, they did assure the gen- 
tleman whom I sent to warn them off that they had bought 
it from Delaware Indians, who had signed them deeds for 
it, which I shall read to you that you may inquire into the 
truth of this matter." (He here read the names of eigh- 
teen Indians w^ho had signed the deeds.) "Brother, you 
may depend upon it that this gov^ernment will strictly ob- 
serve their treaties with the Indians and will spare no pains 
to hinder these people from settling these lands. In proof 
of this I shall faithfully relate to you what I have done in 
consequence of the last conference we had together on this 
subject. I never did nor never will hide anything from 
you, being fully persuaded that openness on all occasions 
is the only way to confirm one another in a lasting friend- 
ship. Brother, agreeably to what I lately told you, as soon 
as it came to my knowledge that people were settling in 
the upper parts of Northampton county, beyond the bound 
of the lands purchased by the proprietaries of the Indians, 
I sent the sheriff and magistrates of that county to lay be- 
fore them the dangerous consequences that might follow 
from such a proceeding and to desire they would desist and 
go away, and I was in hopes my message would have had 
a good effect, but when it was reported to me by those gen- 
tlemen that they said they would persist in their settlement, 
and that they were supported by the government of Con- 
necticut in what they did, I immediately sent a letter to 
their governor, informing him of my message to these set- 
tlers and of their answer, and did not fail in the strongest 
terms I was able to represent to him, that such a settlement 
was not only against law and the rights of the proprietaries 
of Pennsylvania, to whom the king had granted these lands, 
but that you and your Indians at Wyomink had formerly 
complained of this settlement as a violation of your right, 
the lands not being purchased from the Indians, and that 
being done without consent of the Indians it would endan- 



40 

ger the peace so happily concluded between them and his 
majesty's subjects at Easton, and I did insist that the gover- 
nor of Connecticut should send for these people, put a stop 
to their settlement, and discountenance all such dangerous 
proceedings ; and if, nevertheless, they should continue in 
their unjust attempts, they might depend upon it, that in 
support of the proprietary and Indian rights, I would op- 
pose them with all my might. To this letter I have, as yet, 
received no answer, which keeps me in the dark, so that I 
know not what the intentions of the government of Con- 
necticut are, nor what measures these people will take. 
At the time I wrote to Governor Fitch, I published a 
proclamation strictly forbidding all the inhabitants of this 
province from joining themselves to these intruders, and 
giving it in charge to all his majesty's subjects to bring any 
persons who shall be found settling those lands or encour- 
aging such as did, before the proper magistrates, in order 
that they might be dealt with according to law. And you 
may assuredly rely on my carrying this proclamation into 
execution, and doing everything in my power to remove 
these unlawful intruders. But then, all this will be ineffec- 
tual, if, whilst some Indians are complaining against them, 
others, as they say, are encouraging them and are content 
to have them settle." Teedyuscung thanked the governor 
and expressed great satisfaction therewith. He asked what 
should be done if they should come to Wyomink in the 
spring ? The governor gave him for answer that they 
should not suffer them to settle, and expected to be informed 
of cver)'thing that they should attempt, either at Wj'omink 
or in any other part of the country. To which Teedyus- 
cung replied that he looked upon himself as the governor's 
eye and ear, and that he would give him the earliest intel- 
ligence of everything that should come to his knowledge. 
Then Teedyuscung desired that, as the people who came 
with him were poor and naked, the go\-ernor would order 



41 

them clothes and provisions for their journey home, and 
the governor promised to consult with the provincial com- 
missioners and give him an answer. Another council was 
held April 13, at which was present Lieutenant Governor 
Hamilton and others. The governor, upon reconsidering 
that part of his speech to Teedyuscung, in which he desired 
him not to suffer the Connecticut people to settle at Wyom- 
ink, was of opinion that they might possibly misunderstand 
his meaning and look upon it as an encouragement for them 
to use force in the preventing of their settlement, by which 
means many murders might happen and an Indian war be 
revived, thought proper to explain himself more particu- 
larly on that head, for which purpose he sent for Teedyus- 
cung and explained himself in the following manner : 
"Brother, by what I said to you the other day about your 
not suffering the Connecticut people to settle themselves at 
Wyomink or on any of the Indian lands, I did not mean 
that you should use force or proceed to kill any of them 
for coming amongst you and attempting to settle your 
lands, but you should rather collect the ancient and dis- 
creet men of your nation and go to them in a peaceable 
manner and endeavor to persuade^them to forbear settling 
those lands till the right to the same should be settled by 
lawful authority, and the Indians to whom the land of right 
belongs shall consent to sell it." Teedyuscung being asked 
if he understood what was said, answered that he perfectly 
well understood it and was pleased with it. As for him he 
will do nothing more in this matter, but will acquaint the 
governor with anything that shall hereafter be attempted 
by these people, and leave it to the governor to do what is 
proper. He then acquainted the governor by a string of 
wampum that some of the Opey and Mohican nations were 
going to settle at Wyomink, and when he looked that way 
he should see them sitting together as one people. He 
will always do from his heart what shall be for the best, and 



42 

in an open way. The governor then enforced again to him 
not to have recourse to violence lest it should occasion fresh 
disturbances, but that since he has said he would refer the 
matter to him, he will take care to manage the matter so 
as may be most for the interest of the Indians. In the case 
of Van Horn vs. Dorrance and Fenn vs. Pickering, the dep- 
osition of Parshall Terry was read. It contains inter alia 
this information : "That in the year 1762, he then being an 
inhabitant of Goshen, in the then province of New York, 
and he then also being a proprietor in the Connecticut-Sus- 
quehanna purchase, being informed that the company of 
proprietors had granted two townships, ten miles square 
each, as a gratuity to the first two hundred settlers, they 
being proprietors (or in proportion to a less number), con- 
ditional, that said settlers go and remain in possession fqr 
the company for the term of five years ; that as near as he 
can recollect, some time about the last of August of the 
same year the deponent, with ninety-three others, mostly 
from Connecticut, went to Wyoming ; that they carried on 
and took w ith them horses and farming utensils for the pur- 
pose of carrying on the farming business =i< * * 'pj-jg 
deponent saith that on their arrival at Wyoming they en- 
camped at the mouth of Mill Creek, on the banks of the 
Susquehanna, where they built several huts for shelter ; that 
they cut grass and made hay on Jacob's Plains ; that 
they were shortly after joined by many others ; that their 
whole company on the ground were one hundred and fifty 
or upwards ; that they continued on the ground, according 
to his best recollection, about ten days ; that the season 
being far advanced and finding that it would be difficult to 
procure provisions at so great distance from any inhabited 
country, the committee of the settlers, viz., John Jenkins, 
John Smith and Stephen Ganincr, thought proper and ad- 
vised us to return, which was agreed to and the greatest 
part of the company withdrew, the deponent being one ; 



43 

that a small number were left on the ground who tarried 
some time longer as the deponent understood. The depon- 
ent says that at the time they arrived at Wyoming there 
were no inhabitants in that country to his knowledge, ex- 
cept one Teedyuscung, an Indian chief, and a number of 
Indian families. The deponent did not discover any ap- 
pearance of any improvements being made by white people 
previous to the deponent and the company aforesaid going 
on to the lands. The deponent further saith that at the 
time they withdrew they secured their farming utensils in 
the ground to be ready for the spring following, as they 
expected to return at that time." A private conference was 
held at the governor's house in Philadelphia, November 19, 
1762, Lieutenant Governor Hamilton being present. The 
governor desired Teedyuscung to speak nothing but what 
should be strictly true, which he promised to do, and then 
he began his business, saying : "Brother, you may remem- 
ber that some time ago I told you that I should be obliged 
to remove from Wyomink on account of the New England 
{)cople, and I now again acquaint you that soon after I re- 
turned to Wyomink from Lancaster" (August) "there came 
one hundred and fifty of those people, furnished with all 
sorts of tools, as well for building as husbandry, and de- 
clared that they bought those lands from the Six Nations 
and would settle them, and were actually going to build 
themselves houses and settle upon a creek called Lecha- 
wanoch, about seven or eight miles above Wyomink. I 
threatened them hard and declared I would carr}^ them to 
the governor at Philadelphia, and when they heard me 
threaten them in this manner they said they would go away 
and consult their own governor, for if they were carried to 
Philadelphia they might be detained there seven years, and 
they said further, that since the Indians were uneasy at this 
purchase, if they would give them back the money it had 
cost them, which was one or two bushels of dollars, they 



44 

would ffivc them their land afjain. Brother, ten days after 
these were gone there came other fourteen men and made 
us the same speeches, declaring that they expected above 
three thousand would come and settle the Wyomink lands 
in the spring, and they had with them a saw and saw mill 
tools, purposing to go directly and build a saw mill about 
a mile above where I live, but upon my threatening those 
in the same manner I did the former company they went 
away, and as I was told, buried their tools somewhere in 
the woods. These people desired me to assist them in sur- 
veying the lands, and told me they would reward me hand- 
somely for my trouble, but I refused to have anything to 
do with them. Brother, six days after these were gone 
there came other eight white men and a mulatto, and said 
the very same things to mc that the others had said, and 
immediately I got together my counsel and as soon as we 
had finished our consultations I told these people that I 
would actually confine them and carry them to Philadelphia 
and deliver them to the governor there, upon which they 
went away saying they would go to their own governor and 
come again with greater numbers in the spring. Some of 
these people stole my horse that I bought at Easton, but 
they gave me another horse and five pounds in money in 
satisfaction for my horse. Brother, tho' I threatened these 
people hard tiiat I would confine them and carry them 
down to you, yet I did not mean actually to do it, remem- 
bering that you charged me not to strike any white men 
tho' they should come, but to send you the earliest notice 
of their coming that was in my power. Brother, before I 
got up to Wyomink from Lancaster, there had come a great 
body of these New England people with intent actually to 
settle the land, but the Six Nations passing by at that time 
from Lancaster, sent to let them know that they should not 
be permitted to settle any of these lands, and on their ex- 
pressing great resentment against them and threatening 



45 

them if they persisted, they went away. This I was told 
by Thomas King, who was left behind at Wyomink by the 
Six Nations to tell me that they intended to lay this whole 
matter before the great council at Onondago, and that they 
would send for me and my Indians to come to Albany in 
the spring, where they are to have a meeting with the New 
England people, and desired I would be quiet till I should 
receive their message, and then come to Albany. On this 
speech of Thomas King's we met together in council and 
agreed not to give him any promise to come to Albany, 
but to advise the governor of Pennsylvania of this and to 
take his advice what to do, and if he will go with us and 
advise us to go, we will go in case we should be sent for in 
the spring. Brother, surely, as you have a general of the 
king's armies here he might hinder these people from com- 
ing and disturbing us in our possessions. * * * Brother, 
I have one thing more to say, and then I shall have finished 
all I have to say at this time. Brother, you may remem- 
ber that at the treaty at Easton w^e were promised that a 
school master and ministers should be sent to instruct us 
in religion and to teach us to read and write. As none 
have been yet provided for us I desire to know what you 
intend to do in this matter. I have now done." The gov- 
ernor answered Teedyuscung's speech the next day as fol- 
lows : "I thank you for the information you have given me 
of what passed between you and the people of Connecticut. 
Hearing that some of these people were gone towards the 
Susquehanna, I sent a special messenger after them to warn 
them from settling those lands and to take care not to give 
offense to the Indians from whom those lands had not been 
purchased. My messenger came, fortunately, just after the 
Six Nations had ordered them to go away and shown great 
reluctance at their presuming to come and settle those 
lands, and met them returning home displeased with the 
Six Nations for speaking to them in the rough manner they 



46 

did. Brother, I have written both to General Amherst and 
to Sir WiUiam Johnson and to the governor of Connecti- 
cut ; this matter is hkewise laid before the great king by- 
Sir William Johnson, so that I am in hopes you will not see 
any more of these troublesome people, but that measures 
will be taken to keep them at home. Brother, I commend 
you for your prudent behavior; I did and do still desire 
that no blood of the white people may be shed by you, but 
that you will continue to give me the earliest notice you 
can if you hear of any of them coming again in the spring. 
Brother, * * * you know that your uncles, the Six 
N£.tions, have kindled a fire for you at VVyomink, and de- 
sired you would stay there and watch and give them notice 
if any white people should come to take away their lands 
from them and that you would not suffer them to do it. 
You may think, be assured, that this winter measures will 
be taken to prevent these troublesome people from coming 
to disturb you. On these considerations I desire you will 
remain quiet where you are and not move away, as you 
seem to have no inclinations to go away, only on account 
of these New England disturbers. As to any invitations 
the Six Nations may make to you to come to Albany to 
council with them and to meet the New England people, 
you will pay such regard to them as your connections with 
your uncles will require. I don't pretend to any authority 
over you, but I would advise you to comply with such in; 
vitation as you shall receive from your uncles. I am not 
invited and know nothing of this matter, but if I hear an)'- 
thing of it I will let you know. The times have been so 
unsettled that there has been no opportunity of sending 
ministers and school masters among you. Now there is a 
likelihood of a general peace here soon established; if you 
determine still to continue at Wyomink, about which you 
have expressed some doubts to me, I shall consider of this 
matter and send \-ou an answer at the proper time." 



47 

This was the last official act of Teedyuscung with the 
government of Pennsylvania. 

For a period of nearly five years succeeding the last 
treaty held at Easton, the frontiers of Pennsylvania were 
exempt from Indian hostilities or depredations, except the 
practice of horse stealing, to which the savages were always 
addicted. The Indians frequently visited Philadelphia in 
parties and received attention and presents from the gover- 
nor. In 1762 the chain of friendship between them and the 
whites was strengthened and brightened at a great council 
held at Lancaster, attended by chiefs from the Six Nations, 
by the western Indians and by those in Pennsylvania. At 
this treaty Teedyuscung withdrew the imputation of forgery 
made at Easton against the younger Penn's and their 
agents, but adhered to the charge of fraud as connected 
with the walking purchase. He, however, signed a release 
for all claims upon lands on the Delaware, and received for 
himself and his people seven hundred pounds, Pennsylvania 
currency (eighteen hundred dollars), in money and goods. 
The Moravians reestablished their missions at Gnadenhut- 
ten, Waughwawame (Wyoming), Wyalusing and at other 
points, and the whites on the frontiers, recovering from the 
effects of the last long and bloody war were anticipating 
the blessings of a prosperous peace. Though suffering 
many privations, the zeal of the missionaries did not cool, 
neither did their faith waver, nor their efforts relax ; their 
souls seemed to glow with a divine ardor, success crowned 
their labors, and several hundred Indians received the rite 
of baptism. In the meantime Wyoming was the theatre of 
highly interesting events. The correspondence between 
the executive of Pennsylvania and Sir William Johnson was 
reopened and the influence of the baronet was exerted upon 
the Six Nations to persuade them to disavow the sale of 
1754. Those of the Indians who had not been concerned 
in the sale, and who, on the other hand, w ere doubtless op- 



48 

posed to it, were of course not unwilling to repudiate the 
transaction, and a deputation of fi\e of their chiefs was sent 
to Hartford, accompanied by Colonel Guy Johnson, deputy 
agent, and an interpreter sent by Sir William. Conferences 
were held by these chiefs with the governor of Connecticut 
and his council on May 28 and 30, 1762, in the course of 
which the sale of the land was disavowed as a national 
transaction. They admitted that a sale had been made, 
but denied its validity, inasmuch, they averred, as it had 
not been made according to ancient usage in a full and 
open council, but the chiefs who had signed the deed had 
been applied to separately, and had acted only in their in- 
dividual capacities. Governor Fitch, in reply, assured the 
chiefs that the movements of the company had not been 
authorized by the government, and with their proceedings 
it had, in fact, had nothing to do. For their further satis- 
faction, moreover, the governor informed them that orders 
had been received from his majesty commanding him to 
use his authority and influence to prevent the intended 
movement upon the lands in dispute until the matter should 
be laid before the king. They were likewise still farther 
assured that the company had acquiesced in those orders 
and had unanimously agreed that no person should enter 
upon the lands until his majesty's pleasure should be 
known. With these assurances, the deputies, consisting of 
one Mohawk, two Onondagoes and two Ca)'ugas — none of 
them chiefs of note — seem to have been satisfied. But 
whatever might have been the desire of the shareholders of 
the company, the individuals who had resolved to emigrate 
gave little attention to their stipulations with the governor, 
and their ad\-ance was met by a series of unheeded procla- 
mations and followed by the powerless remonstrances of 
the sheriff and magistracy residing in Northampton county, 
on the Delaware, to which the valley of Wyoming was held 
to belong, the seat of justice of which was at Easton. Nor 



49 

was this all. In the course of the same year the proprie- 
taries of Pennsylvania made a case and took the opinion of 
the attorney general of the crown (Mr. Pratt, afterwards 
Lord Camden), as to the right of Connecticut to the terri- 
tory she was claiming. That officer was clear in his opinion 
against Connecticut — holding that, by virtue of her adjust- 
ment of boundaries with New York, she was precluded 
from advancing a step beyond. But the Susquehanna com- 
pany was not idle. Colonel Eliphalet Dyer, a leading as- 
sociate and a man of energy and ability, was dispatched 
to England, charged likewise with a "case," carefully pre- 
pared, which was presented to the consideration of eminent 
counsel in London, who came to a directly opposite con- 
clusion. Each party therefore felt strengthened by those 
conflicting legal opinions, and both became the more reso- 
lute in the prosecution of their claims. Meantime fresh 
scenes were opening in the disputed territory, as painful as 
unexpected. Notwithstanding a proclamation issued by 
Governor Fitch, eight days after the conference with the 
Indians were ended, forbidding the people of Connecticut 
from trespassing upon the disputed territory, the pioneers 
who, in the summer of 1762, had commenced their opera- 
tions in Wyoming, returned to the valley to resume their 
labors early in the ensuing spring, accompanied by their 
families, and with augmented numbers of settlers. They 
were furnished with an adequate supply of provisions, and 
took with them a quantity of live stock, cattle, horses and 
pigs. Thus provided, and calculating to draw iargel}' from 
the teeming soil in the course of the season, they resumed 
their labors with light hearts and vigorous arms. The 
forests rapidly retreated before their well directed blows, 
and in the course of the summer they commenced bringing 
the lands into cultivation on both sides of the river. Their 
advancement was now so rapid that it is believed the jeal- 
ousies of the Indians began to be awakened. At least, not- 



50 

withstanding the claims which the Six Nations had asserted 
over the territory by virtue of which they had sold to the 
Susquehanna company, Teedyuscung and his people al- 
leged that they ought to receive compensation also. Sir 
William Johnson had indeed predicted as much in a letter 
addressed to Governor Fitch in the preceding month of 
November, in which he said: "I cannot avoid giving you 
my sentiments as I formerly did, that the Indians insist 
upon the claims of the people of Connecticut to lands on 
the Susquehanna as unlawful, and the steps taken to obtain 
the same to be unjust, and have declared themselves deter- 
mined to oppose any such settlement. I am therefore ap- 
prehensive of any farther attempt at an establishment there 
will not only be severely felt by those who shall put the same 
in execution, but may (notwithstanding all my endeavors to 
the contrary) be productive of fatal consequences on our 
frontiers." Thus matters stood until in the spring, when an 
event occurred which broke up the settlement at one fell 
blow. Indian revenge may sleep, but never dies; the hour 
may be postponed for months or years, but at last will 
come as sure as fate. Teedyuscung had slain with his own 
hand the chief who commanded the Iroquois war party in 
their devastation of Gnadenhutten. War upon the whites 
being now renewed, it is not improbable that the king ma)' 
have declined to lead his tribe to battle. At the great 
council held at Easton in 1758, the Six Nations had ob- 
served, with no very cordial feelings, the important position 
which Tecd}-uscung had attained in the opinion of the 
w hites, b}' the force of his talents and the energ)' of his 
character. Long accustomed to \ie\v the Delawares and 
their (leri\'ati\'e tribes as tiieir s///>jir/s, the haughty Iroquois 
could not brook this advancement of a supposed inferior, 
and the reflection had been rankling in their bosoms until it 
was determined to cut ofTthe object of their hate. Certain, 
however, it is, that for some time se\'eral of the Six Nations 



51 

had been visiting at Wyoming without any ostensible ob- 
ject, minghng, socially, with the Delawares, and appearing 
on friendly terms with the old chief. Whiskey had been 
obtained, which, when in his power, the Indian propensity 
was too strong to be resisted, and he drank until inebriation 
overpowered his senses, and he lay sleeping in his wigwam 
scarcely conscious of life, and wholly unsuspicious of dan- 
ger. In the dead of night, on April 19, 1763, the house of 
Teedyuscung, and twenty of the surrounding dwellings 
burst, almost at the same moment, into flames, and thus the 
great Delaware king miserably perished. The wickedness 
of this deed of darkness was heightened by an act of still 
greater atrocity. Th-ey charged the assassination upon the 
white settlers from Connecticut, and had the address to in- 
spire the Delawares with such a belief. The consequences 
may readily be anticipated. Teedyuscung was greatly be- 
loved by his people, and their exasperation at "the deep dam- 
nation of his taking off," was kindled to a degree of corre- 
sponding intensity. The white settlers, however, being en- 
tirely innocent of the transaction — utterly unconscious that 
it had been imputed to them — were equally unconscious of 
the storm that was so suddenly to break upon their heads. 
Their intercourse with the Indians, during the preceding 
\'car, had been so entirely friendly that they had not even 
pro\'idcd themseU-es \\ith weapons of self defense, and 
although there had been some slight manifestations of 
jealousy at their onward progress, among the Indians, )-ct 
their pacific relations, thus flir, had not been interrupted, 
l^ut they were now reposing in false security. Stimulated 
to revenge by the representations of their false and insidious 
\isitors, the Delawares, on the 15th of October, rose upon 
the settlement and massacred twelve of the people in cold 
blood, at noonday, while engaged in the labors of the field 
on the flats in the lower part of this city. Those who 
escaped ran to the adjacent plantations to apprize them of 



52 

what had happened, and were the swift messengers of the 
painful intelligence to the houses of the settlement and the 
families of the slain. It was an hour of sad consternation. 
Having no arms even for self defense, the people were com- 
pelled at once to seize upon such few of their effects as they 
could carry upon their shoulders, and flee to the mountains. 
As they turned back, during their ascent, to steal an oc- 
casional glance at the beautiful valley below, they beheld 
the savages driving their cattle away to their own towns, 
and plundering their houses of the goods that had been 
left. At nightfall the torch was applied and the darkness 
that hung over the vale was illuminated by the lurid flames 
of their own dwellings —the abodes of happiness and peace 
in the morning. Hapless, indeed, was the condition of 
the fugitives. Their number amounted to several hun- 
dreds — men, women and children — the infant at the breast, 
the happy wife a few brief hours before, now a widow in 
the midst of a group of orphans. The supplies, both of 
provisions and clothing, which they had sesured in the 
moment of their flight, were altogether inadequate to their 
wants. The chilly winds of autumn were howling with 
melancholy wail among the mountain pines, through which, 
over rivers and glens, and fearful morasses, they were to 
thread their way sixty miles to the nearest settlements on 
the Delaware and thence back to their friends in Connecti- 
cut, a distance of two hundred and fifty miles. Notwith- 
standing the hardships they were compelled to encounter, 
and the deprivations under which they labored, manv of 
them accomplished the journey in safety, while others, lost 
in the mazes of the swamps, were never heard of more. 

Parshall Terry sa)'s : "That early in the month of May 
(as near as he can recollect), in the year 1763, he, the de- 
])onent, w ith a small number of others, went on to Wyom- 
ing to renew their ptxssessions ; that they were soon joined 
b)' a large number, being mostly those who had been on 



53 

the preceding year ; that they took on with them horses, 
oxen, cows and farming utensils ; that they proceeded to 
plowing, planting corn and sowing grain of different kinds, 
building houses, fences and all kinds of farmers business ; 
that they made large improvements in Wilkes-Barre, Kings- 
ton, Plymouth and Hanover (as they are now called); that 
they improved several hundred acres of land with corn and 
other grain, and procured a large quantity of hay ; that 
they carried on their business unmolested until the month 
of October ; that during their residence at Wyoming this 
season, according to his best recollection, there were about 
one hundred and fifty settlers who made improvements, 
though not so great a number on the ground at any one 
time ; that he also well recollects lands being laid out and 
lotted on the Susquehanna river the same year, and that he, 
the deponent, drew a lot at that time in Wilkes-Barre (as it 
is now called) ; that on the fifteenth day of October the set- 
tlers being in a scattered condition, on their respective 
farms, they were attacked by the savages, surprised in 
every part of their settlement, and all at or near the same 
time ; that near twenty were killed of the settlers, the others 
taken and dispersed. The whole of the property of the set- 
tlers then on the ground fell into the enemy's hands. The 
deponent recollects the names of several that were killed, 
viz., the Rev. William Marsh, Thomas Marsh, Timothy 
HoUistcr, Timothy Hollister, junior, Nathaniel HoUister, 
Samuel Richards, Nathaniel Terry, Wright Smith, Daniel 
Baldwin and his wife, Jesse Wiggins, and a woman b)' 
the name of Zeriah Whitney. Several others were killed 
whose names he does not recollect." In an appendix to an 
address delivered at the Wyoming Monument by W. H. 
Egle, M. D., July 3, 1889, we have a brief narrative of the 
captivity of Isaac Hollister. He .says: "On the 15th day 
of October, 1763, as I was at work with my father on the 
banks of the Susquehannah, the Indians to the number of 



54 

one hundred and thirt)'-fiv^e came upon us, and killed my 
father on the spot. My brother, Timothy, who was at work 
about half mile distant under-went the same fate, as did like- 
wise fourteen or fifteen others who were at work in different 
places. The Indians, after they had burnt and destroyed 
all they could, marched off, and carried me up the Susque- 
hannah river about one hundred and fifty miles." 

The names of the survivors were John Jenkins, William 
Buck, Oliver Smith, Abel Pierce, Obadiah Gore, Daniel 
Gore, Isaac Underwood, Isaac Bennett, James Atherton, 
Ebenezer Searles, Ephraim Taylor, Ephraim Taylor, Jr., 
John Dorrance, Timothy Smith, Jonathan Slocum, Benja- 
min Follett, Nathan Hurlbut, Isaac Hollister, Matthew 
Smith, Benjamin Davis, George Minor, John Smith, Elipha- 
let Stevens, William Stevens, Ephraim Seely, David Honey- 
well, Jonathan Weeks, Jonathan Weeks, Jr., Philip Weeks, 
Uriah Stevens, Gideon Lawrence, Stephen Gardner, Augus- 
tus Hunt, John Comstock, Oliver Jewell, Ezra Dean, Daniel 
Larence, P2zekiel Pierce, Eilkanah Fuller, Benjamin Ashley, 

Stephen Lee, Hover, Silas Parke, Moses Kimball, 

Nathaniel Chapman, Benjamin Shoemaker, Simeon Draper, 
David Marvin, Parshall Terry. 

The descendants of a large number of the above named 
persons still reside in the Wyoming valley, having returned 
in 1769, when the next attempt at settlement was made. 

Teedyuscung with all his faults, was yet one of the 
noblest of his race. Yet, his character stands not well in 
histor)- — not as well, by any means, as it deserxcs. That 
he was a man of talent and courage, there can be no ques- 
tion ; but withal he was greatly subject to the constitutional 
infirmities of his race, unstable in his purposes, and a lover 
of the fire waters — the enemy which, received to the lip, 
steals away the brain, alike of the white man and the red. 
It has already been seen that he was early a convert — and 
apparcnth' a sincere one — to the christian fiith of the mis- 



55 

sionaries. After the suspension of hostilities, and during 
negotiations for peace, he was much at Bethlehem, and at 
one time fixed his residence there. His attachment to the 
brethren he openly av^owed, expressing his determination 
to keep by them in preference to others of the whites. 
Elsewhere he exulted in being called a Moravian. Although 
he had broken his vows and had been unfaithful to his pro- 
fession, he would frequently, when in conversation with the 
brethren, revert to his baptism, and feelingly deplore the 
loss of the peace of mind he had once enjoyed. And hence 
we doubt not that there were times when, marshalling 
his savage warriors for deeds of blood in the wild highlands 
of the Delawares, there would come over him a vision of 
the "Huts of Grace," in the peaceful valley of the Mahon- 
ing, and of the turreted chapel in which he had knelt in 
baptism, and which he had entered so often on holy days, 
at the sound of the church-going bell. But his faith was too 
weak to withstand the influence of ambition, and when ele- 
vated to the supreme chieftainship of the scattering tribes 
of his nation, his behavior was such as to cause the good 
missionaries to tremble for his safety, seeing that he became 
"like a reed shaken by the wind." Hitherto, for many 
years, his nation had been down-trodden by the Iroquois, 
but when they determined once more to assert their own 
manhood, and to grasp the hatchet presented them by the 
French, electing Teedyuscung their king, as he had been 
their energetic champion in the councils before, he now be- 
came, as he was called, "The Trumpet of War." He did 
not, however, long continue upon the war path, but, as has 
been seen, became an early advocate and ambassador of 
peace, although his sincerity in this respect was questioned 
by the Moravian clergy and likewise by Sir William Johnson. 
Still it must be recorded in his behalf that he appears never 
to have entirely forfeited the confidence of the Quakers. 
They were indeed opposed to the declaration of war against 
the Indians by Governor Hamilton — believing that the dif- 



56 

ficulties with them might have been healed by a more pa- 
cific course. And in this view they had the concurrence of 
Sir Wilham Johnson. But in regard to the character of 
Teedyuscung, the sympathies of the baronet were with his 
own Indians — the Six Nations. They hated, and finally 
murdered him, and Sir William loved him not. Yet in his 
correspondence, while he labored to detract somewhat from 
the lofty pretensions of the Delaware captain, the baronet 
has conceded to him enough of talent, influence and power 
among his people to give him a proud rank among the 
chieftains of his race. Certain it is, that Teedyuscung did 
much to restore his nation to the rank of Men, of which 
they had been deprived by the Iroquois, and great allow- 
ances are to be made on the score of his instability of con- 
duct, from the peculiar circumstances under which he was 
often placed. In regard to his religious character and pro- 
fessions, his memory rests beneath a cloud. There were 
seasons, according to the records of the faithful missionary, 
in which he gave signs of penitence and reform. The 
brethren did all in their power for his reclamation. Oc- 
casional appearances of contrition at times inspired hopes 
of success. "As to externals," he once said, 'T possess every- 
thing in plenty ; but riches are of no use to me, for I have 
a troubled conscience. I still remember well what it is to 
feel peace in the heart, but now I have lost all." Yet he 
soon turned back. All hopes of his case were lost, and in 
recording his death, the benevolent Loskiel briefly says : 
"He was burnt in his house at Wajomick, without having 
given any proof of repentance." 

The following authorities in part ha\e been consulted in 
compiling this paper : 

Chapman, I. A. History of Wyoming. 

Colonial Records. 

Day, Sherman. Historical Collections of the State of Pennsylvania. 

Kgle, W. H., M. D. History- of Pennsylvania. 

Hollister, H., M. D. History of the Lackawanna Valley. 

lioyt, H. M. Brief of a Title in the Seventeen Townships. 

Mif.er, Charles. History of Wyoming. 

Montgomery, Morton L. Indians of Pennsylvania in Dr. Egle's Historical Register. 

Pcarce, Stewart. Annals of Luzerne County. 

Pennsylvania Archives. 

Reichel, W, C. Memorials of the Moravian Church. 

Stone, W. L. Poetry and History of Wyoming. 



COAL: 

ITS ANTIQUITY. 



DISCOVERY AND EARLY DEVELOPMENT IN THE 
W/YOMING VALLEY. 



COAL, ITS ANTIQUITY. DISCOVERY AND EARLY 
DEVELOPMENT IN THE WYOMING VALLEY. 

[Paper read before the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society, June 27, 1890, by 
George B. Kulp, Esq., Historiographer of the Society.] 

The word Coal has been derived by some writers from 
the Hebrew, and by others from the Greek or Latin, but 
whatever may be its origin, it is deserving of remark that 
the same sound for the same object is used in the Anglo- 
Saxon, the Teutonic, the Dutch, the Danish and the Islandic 
languages. 

In its most general sense the term Coal includes all 
varieties of carbonaceous minerals used as fuel. Stone coal 
is a local English term, but with a signification restricted to 
the substance known by mineralogists as anthracite. In old 
English writings the terms pit coal and sea coal are com- 
monly used. These have reference to the mode in which 
the mineral is obtained and the manner in which it is trans- 
ported to market. Anthracite is the most condensed form 
of mineral coal and the richest in carbon. Its color varies 
from jet to glistening black, to dark lead gray; it is clean, 
not soiling the hands ; ignites with difficulty ; burns with a 
short blue flame without smoke, and with very little illumi- 
nating power. It gives an intense, concentrated heat. Some 
varieties when undisturbed while burning, partially retain 
their shape till nearly consumed, and some become extinct 
before they have parted with the whole of their carbon. 
The constituents of anthracite are carbon, water and earthy 
matters — not in chemical proportions, but in accidental and 
varying mixtures. There are also other ingredients occa- 
sionally present, beside the oxide of iron, silica and alumina, 
which compose the earthy matters or ash. These are sul- 
phur, bitumen, &c. All coals, including in this designation 
naphtha, petroleum, asphaltum, &c., are but representatives 



6o 

of the successive changes from vegetable to mineral mat- 
ters. Anthracite is the condensed coke of bituminous coal. 
It must be borne in mind that the signification now attached 
to the word coal is different from that which formerly ob- 
tained, when wood was the only fuel in general use. Coal 
then meant the carbonaceous residue obtained in the de- 
structive distillation of wood, or what is known as charcoal, 
and the name collier was applied indifferently to both coal 
miners and charcoal burners. The spelling "cole" was gen- 
erally used up to the middle of the seventeenth century 
when it was gradually superseded by the modern form 
"coal." The plural coals seems to have been used from a 
very early period to signify the broken fragments of the min- 
eral as prepared for use. 

The use of mineral coal as fuel certainly antedates the 
Christian era, but the date of the earliest mining operations 
is unknown. A paragraph from the writings of Theo- 
phrastus, one of Aristotle's disciples, who was born in the 
year 382 B. C, is quoted to prove its early use, but as no 
reference is made to mining operations, it seems probable 
that the coal gathered and "broken for use" was loose out- 
crop coal. The passage reads : "Those substances that are 
called coals and are broken for use are earthy, but they kindle 
and burn like wooden coals. They are found in Lyguria, 
where there is amber, and in Ellis, over the mountain towards 
Olympias. They are used by the smiths." The word "coal" 
frequently occurring in the Bible, is doubtless used to denote 
wood, charcoal, or any substance used as fuel. The ancient 
Britons had a primitive name for this fossil, and Pennant 
says : "That a flint axe, the instrument of the Aborigines of 
our island, was discovered in a certain vein of coal in Mon- 
mouthshire, and in such a situation as to render it very ac- 
cessible to the inexperienced natives who, in early times, were 
incapable of pursuing the seams to any great depths." 
Ca;sar takes no notice of coal in his description of England, 



6i 

yet there is good evidence to believe that the Romans 
brought it into use. In the West Riding of Yorkshire are 
many beds of cinders, heaped up in the fields, in one of 
which a number of Roman coins were found some years 
ago. From Horsely it appears that there was a colliery at 
Benwell, about four miles west of New Castle upon Tyne, 
supposed to have been actually worked by the Romans, and 
it is evident from Whitaker that coals were used as fuel in 
England by the Saxons. No mention is made of this fossil 
during the Danish occupation, nor for many years after the 
Norman conquest. The first charter for the license of dig- 
ging coals was granted by King Henry III in the year 1239 ; 
it was there denominated sea coal, and in 1281 Newcastle 
was famous for its great trade in this article. The privilege 
of digging coal in the lands of Pittencrief, was conferred by 
charter on the abbot and convent of Dumferline in 1291, 
and at a very early period the monks of Newbattle Abbey 
dug coal from surface-pits on the banks of the Esk. In 
1306 the use of sea coal was prohibited in London from its 
supposed tendency to corrupt the air. Shortly after this it 
was the common fuel at the King's palace in London, and 
in 1325 a trade was opened between France and England in 
which corn was imported and coal was exported. Aeneas 
Silvius Piccolomini (after\v^ards Pope Pius II), who visited 
Scotland in the fifteenth century, refers to the fact that the 
poor people received at the church doors a species of stone 
which they burned in place of wood, but, although the 
value of coal for smiths and artificers' work was early recog- 
nized, it was not generally employed for domestic purposes 
till about the close of the sixteenth century. In 1606 an 
Act was passed binding colliers to perpetual service at the 
works at which they were engaged, and their full emanci- 
pation did not take place until 1799. 

In 161 5 there were employed in the coal trade of New 
Castle four hundred sail of ships, one-half of which supplied 



62 

London, the remainder the other part of the kingdom. The 
French, too, are represented as trading to New Castle at 
this time for coal, in fleets of fifty sails at once, serving the 
ports of Picardy, Normandy, Rochelle and Bordeaux, while 
the ships of Bremen, Emboden, Holland and Zealand were 
supplying the inhabitants of Flanders. 

Macaulay, in his History of England, says that "coal, 
though very little used in any species of manufacture, was 
already the ordinary fuel in some districts which were fortu- 
nate enough to possess large beds, and in the capital, which 
could easily be supplied by water carriage. It seems rea- 
sonable to believe that at least one-half of the quantity 
then extracted from the pits was consumed in London. 
The consumption of London seemed to the writers of that 
age enormous, and was often mentioned by them as a proof 
of the greatness of the imperial city. They scarcely hoped 
to be believed when they affirmed that two hundred and 
eighty thousand chaldrons, that is to say, about three hun- 
dred and fifty thousand tons, were, in the last year of the reign 
of Charles the Second (1685), brought to the Thames." 

Coal mining was also prosecuted in Scotland in the elev- 
enth and in Germany in the thirteenth century, while at the 
antipodes the Chinese had even at that early day become 
familiar with the use of coal. 

Saward, in his Coal Trade for 1890, speaks thus of the 
coal supplies of the world : 

"In view of the question which has suggested itself on 
more than one occasion as to how long it would be before 
the Old World coal deposits would become exhausted, a 
German scientific journal supplies some interesting figures 
relating to the world's coal fields outside of the North Ameri- 
can Continent. According to these, the Low Countries, 
Switzerland, Denmark, Germany, and Bohemia possess coal 
mines of a surface area of about fifty-nine thousand square 
miles. Russia alone has twenty-two thousand square miles. 



(^3 

The deposits of the island of Formosa amount to something 
like ten thousand square miles, some of the coal veins rang-* 
ing up to 96 feet in thickness. The coal fields of Austria, 
Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Turkey, and Persia cover 
about thirty-nine thousand square miles, those of India 
thirty-five thousand, and those of Japan six thousand square 
miles, while those of China are estimated at the enormous 
figure of four hundred thousand square miles. But these 
are not all. The Falkland Islands, Patagonia, and Peru are 
very rich in coal, while the southern part of Chili is one im- 
mense deposit. In Brazil veins varying in thickness from 
seventeen to twenty-five feet are found in numbers, and in 
the United States of Columbia there is an abundance of 
the mineral. Mexico and the Vancouver Islands are also 
well supplied, there being probably not far from twenty 
thousand square miles, while the deposits thus far discovered 
in Tasmania, New Caledonia, and Natal are estimated to 
cover one hundred thousand square miles ; the larger num- 
ber of these deposits have not yet been worked." 

But it was not until the eighteenth century that coal 
mining began to be scientifically prosecuted. Prior to that 
time the mines were of very limited depth, rarely going be- 
neath water level ; the coal was raised by a windlass or 
horse-gin, drainage affected by adits, or the water was raised 
in chain pumps or barrels operated by hand or horse-power, 
and the natural ventilation — aided in some instances by fall- 
ing water, and later by furnaces — was usually the sole reli-, 
ance for removing foul air and explosive gases. 

Yet in some of these early operations there are pictures 
not unlike those to be seen every day at our modern mines ; 
thus the following description of the early tram-roads and 
wagons used at Newcastle, from "The History and Antiq- 
uities of the Town of New Castle, upon Tyne," by John 
Brand, M. A., 1789, in which an article written by Lord 



64 

Keeper Guilder, 1676, quoted below, singularly resembles 
'the present practice : 

"The manner of carriage is by laying rails of timber 
from the colliery down to the river, exactly straight and 
parallel ; and bulky carts are made with four rowlets, fitting 
these rails, whereby the carriage is so easy that one horse 
will draw four or five chaldrons of coals, and is an immense 
benefit to the coal merchants." 

The fate of many who embarked in mining at that time 
is strikingly similar to that which frequently overtakes the 
projectors of enterprises at present, as evinced by the fol- 
lowing from Grey's "Chorographia," 1649: 

"One merchant imployeth five hundred or a thousand 
in his works of coal ; yet, for all of his labour, care and 
cost, can scarcely live by his trade ; nay, many of them hath 
consumed and spent great estates and dyed beggars. I can 
remember one, of many, that raysed his estate by coale 
trade; many I remember that hath wasted great estates." 

"Some South gentlemen have, upon great hope of bene- 
fit, come into this countiy to hazard their monies in coale 
pits. Master Beaumont, a gentleman of great inginuity and 
rare parts, adventured into our mines with his thirty thou- 
sand pounds ; who brought with him many rare engines, 
not known then in these parts — as, the art to boore with iron 
rodds, to try the deepnesseand thicknesse of the coale, rare 
engines to draw water out of the pits, wagons with one 
horse, to carry down coales from the pits to the stathes to 
the river. * * * In a few years he consumed all his 
money, and rode home upon his light-horse." 

As it is with anthracite we have to deal, we will devote 
ourselves to that branch of coal. Of the value or even the 
existence of coal in America all races were ignorant until 
the eighteenth century. "At Christian Spring, near Naza- 
reth, Pa., there was living about the year 1750 to 1755, a 
gunsmith, who, upon application being made him by several 



65 

Indians to repair their rifles, replied that he was unable to 
comply immediately ; 'for,' said he, 'I am entirely bare of 
charcoal, but as I am now engaged in setting some wood to 
char it, therefore, you must wait several weeks.' This, the 
Indians, having come a great distance, felt loath to do ; they 
demanded a bag from the gunsmith, and having received it, 
went away and in two hours returned with as much stone 
coal as they could well carry. They refused to tell where 
they had procured it." As there is no coal near Nazareth 
the tale seems improbable. If the time fixed had been two 
days, instead of two hours, the coal could have been brought 
from the Mauch Chunk region in that time. That portion 
of Pennsylvania purchased of the Five Nations by the Con- 
necticut-Susquehanna Company at Albany, N. Y., July ii, 
1754, for the sum of two thousand pounds of current money 
of the province of New York, embraced the Lackawanna 
and Wyoming coal district. Fourteen years later, Novem- 
ber 5, 1768, the same territory was included in the Fort 
Stanwix purchase of the Indian Nations by the proprietary 
government of Pennsylvania. The strife between Pennsyl- 
vania and Connecticut resulted from these purchases. The 
first notice of coal at Wyoming grew out of the settlement 
there in 1762. Parshall Terry, in his deposition, says : 

"As near as he can recollect, some time about the last of 
August, 1762, he, with ninety-three others, mostly from 
Connecticut, went to Wyoming, encamped at the mouth of 
Mill Creek, on the bank of the Susquehanna, built huts, 
made hay on Jacob's Plains, and shortly after were joined 
by many others, and they continued there ten days or longer. 
The committee of the settlers, viz. : John Jenkins, John 
-Smith and Stephen Gardner advised us to return, which 
was agreed to." After the return home of these settlers 
the above committee, through their chairman, John Jenkins, 
made report of the discovery of iron ore and anthracite coal 
at Wyoming. 



66 

"At a meeting of the Susquehanna Company, held at 
Windham, in the county of Windham and colony of Con- 
necticut, April 17, 1763, it appearing to this company that 
some of the proprietors of our purchase of lands at Sus- 
quehanna river, to the number of two or three hundred, de- 
sire that the lands may be laid out into several townships, as 
a part of their rights for the speedy settlement of said lands. 

"It is therefore voted, That there shall be eight townships 
laid out on said river, as near as may be to the townships 
granted as gratuity to the first settlers, each of said eight 
townships to contain five miles square of land, fit for good 
improvement or equivalent thereunto as the land may suit- 
ably accommodate, at the discretion of a committee here- 
after to be named and appointed for that purpose, reserving 
for the use of the company for their after-disposal, all beds 
or mines of iron ore and coal that may be within the towns 
ordered for settlement." 

"This would appear to be the first discovery and mention 
of anthracite coal in the countr\-." — Dr. Eglc's History of 
Pen nsyha Ilia. 

The next mention of coal is in a letter written by James 
Tilghman of Philadelphia, August 14, 1766, addressed to 
the Proprietaries, Thomas and Richard Penn, Spring Gar- 
den, London. At the close of four compact pages on other 
matters, it says : "My brother-in-law, Colonel Francis, one 
of the officers who lately applied to }'0u for a grant of some 
lands in the Forks of the Susquehanna, when there shall be 
a purchase of the Indians, has lately made an excursion into 
those parts and has removed a good many of the people 
settled upon the Indian lands, partly by persuasion and 
partly by compulsion, which has made the Indians pretty 
easy, to appearance, lie went up the N. E. Branch as far 
as Wyoming, where, he says, there is a considerable body of 
good lands and a very great fund of coal in the hills which 
surround a \er\- fine and extensi\'e bottom there. This coal 



6; 

is thought to be veiy fine. With his comphments he sends 
you a piece of this coal. This bed of coal, situate as it is 
on the side of the river, may some time or other be. a thing 
of great value." By way of postscript he adds: "the coal is 
in a small package of the Governor's." In a reply from 
Thomas Penn, dated London, November 7, 1766, to Mr. 
Tilghman, he say in acknowledgment : 'T desire you will 
return my thanks to Colonel Francis for his good services 
in removing the intruders that were settled on the Indians' 
land, and for the piece of coal which we shall have exam- 
ined by some persons skillful in that article, and send their 
observations on it." 

The next mention we have of coal is on the original draft 
of the Manor of Sunbury, surveyed in 1768 by Charles 
Stewart in the Proprietary's interest, where appears the brief 
notation "stone coal" without further explanation. The lo- 
cation on the draft is near the mouth of Toby's creek, and 
not far from where the Woodward breaker is located. 

The next mention of coal is as follows : During General 
Sullivan's march through Wyoming, in 1779, Major George 
Grant, one of his officers, wrote of the valley : "The land 
here is excellent, and comprehends vast mines of coal, pew- 
ter, lead and copperas." The last three named have never 
been found here. 

The next mention of coal is as follows : John David 
Schopf, in his Travels, mentions a visit he made in 1783 to 
abed of brilliant black coal, a mile above Wyoming, which, 
on handling, leaves no taint, and burns without emitting an 
offensive odor ; that it was so abundant as to be obtained 
without any charge. He further tells us that a smith had 
erected workshops near it, and who spoke highly of its 
value. He noticed the numerous impressions of plants be- 
tween the shale and the coal, which he believes proves its 
origin and great antiquity. It is found here on both sides 
of the river, and in various parts of the valley. 



68 

We here conclude the notice of coal with one further 
mention. Joseph Scott, in his "Gazetteer of the United 
States," published in 1795, in his remarks on Luzerne coun- 
ty, says : "Wilkes-Barre, the county seat, contains forty- 
five dwellings, a court house and jail, and several large beds 
of coal are found in the townships of Wilkcs-Barre, Kings- 
ton, Exeter and Plymouth. 

It is impossible to state when the consumption of Wyom- 
ing coal began. It is possible that the Indians at Wyoming 
had some knowledge of the combustible nature of anthra- 
cite coal. Two chiefs from the valley, in company with 
three others from the country of the Si.x Nations, visited 
England in 17 10, and it is presumed they witnessed the 
burning of coal, then in general use in the cities of England, 
for domestic purposes. The consumption of black stones 
instead of wood could not fail to make a deep impression 
on their minds, and they would naturally infer that this fuel 
was nearly allied to the black stones of their own country. 
The appearance of anthracite had long been familiar to their 
eyes. The forge, or seven feet vein of coal, had been cut 
through and exposed by the Nanticoke creek, and the seven 
feet \cin of Plymouth had been laid open to view b}' Ran- 
som's creek. The Susquehanna had exposed the coal at 
Pittston, and the Lackawanna at several points along its 
banks. If the Indians at that day were ignorant of the 
practical use of coal, the)' were at least acquainted with its 
appearance and not improbably with its inflamable nature. 
That the Indians had mines of some kind at Wyoming, the 
following account fully establishes : 

In 1766 a company of Nanticokcs and Mohicans, six in 
number, who had formerly lived at Wyoming, visited Phila- 
ilelphia, and in their talk with the governor said: "As we 
came down from Chenango we stopped at Wyoming, where 
we had a mine in two places, and we discoxercd that some 
white pcoi)lc had been at work in the mine and had filled 



69 

canoes with the ore, and we saw their tools with which they 
had dug it out of the ground, where they made a hole at 
least forty feet long and fiv^e or six feet deep. It happened 
that formerly some white people did take now and then only 
a small bit and carry it away, but these people have been 
working at the mine and filled their canoes. We inform 
you that there is one John Anderson, a trader, now living 
at Wyoming, and we suspect he or somebody by him has 
robbed our mine. This man has a store of goods, and it 
may happen that when the Indians see their mine robbed 
they will come and take away his goods," etc. The sub- 
stance alluded to by the Indians had been carried away in 
small quantities for some time, by the whites, perhaps to 
test its qualities, and it is highly improbable that it would 
have been afterwards removed by canoe loads unless it had 
been found to be a useful article. What could that useful 
article have been but coal ? There were settlements of 
whites on the Susquehanna, a little below the site of the 
town of Northumberland, several years before the period 
when these Indians had their talk with the governor, and 
the coal may have been taken there for blacksmithing pur- 
poses. The Indians who had their guns repaired at Chris- 
tian Sirring certainly had knowledge of the value of coal for 
combustible purposes. 

Obadiah Gore, who represented Westmoreland county 
in the legislature of Connecticut, in 1781 and 1782, and sub- 
sequently one of the judges of Luzerne county, and in 1788, 
1789 and 1790 a member of the Pennsylvania legislature, 
emigrated from Plainfield, Conn., to Wyoming in 1769, and 
began life in the new colony as a blacksmith. Friendly 
with the remaining natives, from motives of policy, he learned 
of them the whereabouts of black stones, and being withal 
a hearty and an experimenting artisan, he succeeded in 
mastering the coal to his shop purposes the same year. 
He, in connection with his brother, Daniel Gore, also a 



70 

blacksmith, were the first white men in Wyoming to give 
practical recognition and development to anthracite as a 
generator of heat. In the few blacksmith shops in Wyo- 
ming Valley and the West Branch settlements coal was 
gradually introduced after its manipulation by Mr. Gore. 
Mr. Pearce, who differs from most of the historians of the 
valley, says, "We do not believe, as do some, that the Gores 
were the first whites who used anthracite on the Susque- 
hanna for blacksmithing. Stone coal would not have been 
noted on the original draft of the Manor of Sunbury if it 
had not been known to be a useful article. Hence, when 
the first settlers came into our valley the evidence inclines 
us to believe the knowledge of the use of anthracite coal 
was communicated to them by the Indians or by some of 
their own race." Jesse Fell used anthracite coal in a nailery 
in 1788. He says, "I found it to answer well for making 
wrought nails, and instead of losing in the weight of the 
rods, the nails e.Kceeded the weight of the rods, which was 
not the case when they were wrought in a charcoal furnace." 
When the struggle for American independence began, in 
1775, the proprietary government of Pennsylvania found 
itself so pressed for firearms that under the sanction of the 
supreme executive council two Durham boats were sent up 
to Wyoming and loaded with coal at Mill Creek, a short 
distance above Wilkes-Barre, and floated down the Susque- 
hanna to Harris Ferry (Harrisburg), thence drawn upon 
wagons to Carlisle, and employed in furnaces and forges to 
supply the defenders of our country with arms. This was 
done annually during the revolutionary war. Thus stone 
coal, by its patriotic triumphs, achieved its way into grad- 
ual use. 

The Smith brothers, John and Abijah, of Plj-mouth, were 
the first in point of time who engaged in the continuing in- 
dustry of the mining of anthracite coal in the United States. 
They left their home in Derby, Conn., in 1 805-6, came to this 



71 

valley and immediately purchased coal land and engaged 
in mining coal. There were others who had made the at- 
tempt on the Lehigh, but the obstacles and discouragements 
which stood in the way proved too great and the work had 
to be given up. It was not resumed until the year 1820. 
TJie SniitJi brothers shipped their first ark of coal in the fall 
of i8oy, to Columbia, Pa. This was probably the first cargo 
of anthracite coal that ivas ever offered for sale in this coun- 
try. In 1808 they sent several ark loads to Columbia and 
other points. Prior to 1803, as we believe, the use of an- 
thracite coal as a fuel was confined almost exclusively to 
furnaces and forges, using an air blast, notwithstanding the 
fact that Oliver Evans had, in 1802, and even before that 
time, demonstrated on several occasions that the blast was 
unnecessary for the domestic use of coal, and had success- 
fully burned the fuel in an open grate and also in a stove 
without an artificial draft. In order to create a market for 
this fuel it became necessary to show that it could be used 
for domestic purposes as well as in furnaces and forges ; that 
it was a better and more convenient fuel than wood, and 
that its use was attended with no difficulties. To accom- 
plish this the Smiths went with their coal arks sent to 
market, and took with them a stone mason and several 
grates, with the purpose of setting the grates in the public 
houses where they might make known the utility of their 
fuel. In several houses in Columbia and in other towns the 
fire places for burning wood were changed by them and fit- 
ted for the use of coal, and coal fires were lighted, careful 
instructions being given meanwhile in the mysteries of a 
stone coal fire. After much perseverance and expense in 
providing coal and grates to demonstrate the valuable quali- 
ties of the new fuel, they disposed of a small part of their 
cargo and left the rest to be sold on commission. Notwith- 
standing the thorough manner in which they had set about 
the introduction of coal as a fuel for domestic uses, it was 



72 

several years before all obstacles to its use were overcome 
and they were able to gain a profit from the enterprise. 

The annual average of the business of the Messrs. Smith 
from iSoy down to 1820 was from six to eight ark loads, or 
abont four to five hundred tons. "The old Susquehanna coal 
ark, like the mastodon, is a thing of the past. The present 
men of the business should understand the character of the 
simple vessel used by the pioneers of the trade. Its size and 
dimensions, cost and capacity must be chronicled. The 
length of the craft was ninety feet, its width sixteen feet, its 
depth four feet, and its capacity 60 tons. Each end termi- 
nated in an acute angle, with a stem post surmounted by a 
huge oar some thirty feet in length, and which required the 
strength of two stout men to ply it in the water. It required 
in its construction thirty-eight hundred feet of two inch 
plank for the bottom, ends and sides, or seventy-six hundred 
feet board measure. The bottom timbers would contain 
about two thousand feet board measure, and the ribs or studs 
sustaining the side planks four hundred feet, making a total 
of some ten thousand feet. The ark was navigated by four 
men, and the ordinary time to reach tide water was seven 
days. Two out of three arks would probably reach the port 
of their destination ; one-third was generally left upon the 
rocks in the rapids of the river or went to the bottom." The 
average price of sales at this time was probably ten dollars, 
leaving a profit of five dollars on the ton. If, therefore, 
three hundred and fifty tons of the fi\e hundred annually 
transported by the Messrs. Smith reached the market, it left 
them a profit of seventeen hundred dollars, not taking into 
account their personal services. Mr. George M. Hollen- 
back sent two ark loads down the Susquehanna, taken from 
his Mill Creek mines in 18 13. The same year Joseph Wright 
of Plymouth mined two ark loads of coal from the mines 
of his brother, the late Samuel G. Wright, of New Jersey, 
near Port Griffith, in Jenkins township. This was an old 



73 

opening and coal had been mined there as far back as 1775. 
The late Lord Butler of Wilkes-Barre had also shipped coal 
from his mines, more generally known of late years as the 
"Baltimore mines," as early as 18 14, and so had Crandall 
Wilcox of Plains township. Colonel George M. Hollenback 
sent two four-horse loads of coal to Philadelphia in 1813, 
and James Lee, of Hanover, sent a four-horse load to a 
blacksmith in Germantown. In 1813 Hon. Charles Miner 
was publishing Tlie Gleaner in Wilkes-Barre, and in a long 
editorial article from his pen, under date of November 19, 
and the head of "State Policy," he urged, with great zeal, the 
improvement of the descending navigation of the Susque- 
hanna and Lehigh rivers. He then said : " Tlie coal of Wyo- 
ming has already become an article of considerable traffic luith 
the lower comities of Pennsylva7iia. Numerous beds have 
been opened, and it is ascertained, beyond all doubt, that the 
valley of Wyoming contains enough coal for ages to come." 
Chapman, in his Historyof Wyoming, writing in 18 17, speak- 
ing of coal, says : "// constitutes the principal fuel of the in- 
habitants as well as their most important article of exporta- 
tion!' Plumb, in his History of Hanover township, says : 
''From 18 10 to 1820 one tJiousand or fifteen hundred tons 
per year luere mined in Hanover',' and ''there ivas a constant 
sale of coal dozvn the river by arks froju the time people 
learned to burn it in the house." In this small way the coal 
trade continued on from 1807 to 1820, when it assumed more 
importance in the public estimation. The years preceding 
that of 1820 were the years of its trials, and the men, during 
that period, who were engaged in the business were merely 
able to sustain themselves with the closest economy and the 
most persevering and unremitting labor. The following ac- 
count current rendered by Price & Waterbury, of New York, 
to Abijah Smith & Co., is a remarkably interesting relic of 
the coal business in its infancy. It very clearly exhibits two 
facts — one the demand, price and consumption of coal in th^ 



;4 

great city of New York at that period, and the other, the 
wonderful zeal manifested in the pioneer dealers to intro- 
duce the article into the market. The coal was sent to 
Havre de Grace, Maryland, and thence by coasting vessels 

to New York : 

"New Yokk, Fkbruary, 1813. 
Messrs. Abijaii Smith & Co., 

Gentlemen : — Having lately taken a view of the business we have been 
conducting for you this sometime past, we have thought it would be grati- 
fying to have the account forwarded, and therefore present you with a 
summary of it up to the 18th of January, 1813, containing first, the quan- 
tity of coal sold, and to whom ; second, the amount of cash paid us from 
time to time ; third, the amount of interest cash on the various sums ad- 
vanced, the credit of interest on sums received ; and lastly, the quantity 
of coal remaining on hand unsold. Should you on the receipt of this find 
any of the items incorrect, we need hardly observe that the knowledge of 
such an error will be corrected with the greatest pleasure. As it respects 
our future plan of procedure we shall expect to see one of your concern in 
the city sometime in the spring, when a new arrangement may be fixed 
ui)on. Our endeavors to establish the character of the coal shall not at 
any time be wanting, and we calculate shortly to dispose of the remain- 
ing parcels of coal unsold. ' ' 

i8i2. June 8. — By cash of Doty & Willets, for 5 chaldrons of coal J 100 00 

By cash ot John Withiiigton, for 5 chaldrons of coal 100 00 

By cash of Coulthaiti & Son, for 10 chaldrons of coal 200 00 

By John Benham's note, 90 days, lor 10 chaldrons of coal .... 200 00 

By cash of G. P. Lorrilard, for i chaldron of coal 20 00 

By cash of J. J. Wilson, for 4 chaldrons of coal 8000 

June 13. — By cash of Doty & Willetts, for 5 chaldrons of coal 100 00 

By cash of G. P. Lorrilard, for ii}4 chaldrons of coal 230 00 

By A. Frazyer's note, 90 days, for 25 chaldrons of coal 47500 

By cash received of T. Coulthaid, for 5 chaldrons ot coal .... 100 00 

By M. Womas' note, 90 days, for 20 chaldrons of coal 380 00 

By half measurement receired for 9 bushels of coal 6 33 

By B. Ward and T. Blagge, for i]^ chaldrons at J20 per chaldron 25 00 

By Wiitingham, for J4 chaldron of coal • 10 00 

June 25. — By Pirpont, for ^ chaldron of coal 11 00 

By Mr. Landiss, for J4 chaldron of coal 12 00 

July 16. — By Robert Barney, for 175^ chaldrons of coal at J22 per chaldron 385 00 

sept. 15 — By cash for i chaldron of coal 12 50 

Oct. 9. — By William Colman, for J4 chaldron of coal 12 50 

By Sexton & Williamson, for 1^ chaldrons of coal 37 5° 

Oct. 24. — By cash for i chaldron of coal 25 00 

Oct. 29. — By cash for }4 chaldron of coal 12 50 

Nov. 7. — By cash for ^ chaldron of coal 12 50 

Nov. 12. — By cash for i chaldron of coal 25 00 

Nov. 16. — By Mr. A. Le Briton, for 12 chaldrons of coal at $2$ per chaldron 288 50 

Dec. 5. — By cash for 'A chaldron of coal 12 50 

Dec. II. — By cash A. Daily, for J2 chaldron of coal 12 50 

Dec. 14. — By cash for }^ chaldron of coal 12 00 

1813. Jan. 4. — By cash for i chaldron of coal 25 00 

Jan. 18. — By J. Curtiz, for 9 bushels of coal 6 27 

By amount of balance this day 763 12 

Total J3601 20 

Errors excepted. Price & Waterbury. 



t 



75 

It will be seen by this account current that coal was sold 
by the chaldron, thirty-six bushels, or nearly a ton and a 
third to the chaldron. The sales therefore, for the New York 
supply in 1 8 1 2, by this firm, were inside of two hundred tons. 

It seems to be the common belief that the anthracite coal 
trade had its rise on the Lehigh in the year 1820, when three 
hundred and sixty-five tons of coal were carried to market, 
yet, as a matter of fact, the industry was begun at Plymouth 
thirteen years before, and for nine years prior to the begin- 
ning of the coal business on the Lehigh river the annual 
shipments on the Susquehanna were considerably in excess 
of the first year's product of the Lehigh region. 

Mr. Pearce states that up to 1820 "the total amount of 
coal sent from Wyoming is reckoned at eighty-five hundred 
tons." This we believe to be a low estimate. The same 
author states that Colonel Washington Lee, in 1820, "mined 
and sent to Baltimore one thousand tons, which he sold at 
$S per ton." Coal had been introduced in Baltimore and 
sold there by the Smith Brothers prior to that date. Let 
us make a new a/)ex to the coal pyramids now in use. Let it 

Note. — The Lehigh region is great in making claims. For instance, on April -23, 1891, 
in the Senate of the state of Pennsylvania, Senator Rapsher of Carbon called up the fol- 
lowing bill on third reading : 
An Act appropriating the sum of two thousand dollars for the erection of a monument to 

the memory of Philip Ginter, the discoverer ot anthracite coal in Pennsylvania. 

Section i. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Common- 
wealth of Pennsylvania in General Assembly met, and it is hereby enacted by the authority 
of the same, that the sum of two thousand dollars be appropriated towards the erection of a 
suitable monument to commemorate the memory of Philip Ginter, the first discoverer of 
anthracite coal in Pennsylvania, to be paid to the committee in charge upon the warrant of 
the Auditor General. 

Senator Hines from our own county asked leave to strike out the words "the first," be- 
cause Philip Ginter was not the first discoverer of coal. 

Senator Rapsher, in reply, said : Mr. President, the historians, like men, sometimes 
differ on that particular point, as to whether Philip Ginter was the first discoverer or not, 
but I think all the historians agree that Philip Ginter was the first authentic discoverer of 
anthracite coal in what was then Northampton county, a himdred years ago the first of next 
September, and it was the inception of ihe Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, and was 
the beginning of the anthracite coal traffic in Pennsylvania, and because the anthracite coal 
interest was of so much importance to the State credit in our section, this could be granted 
without any great strain on our consciences. 

Senator Green, of Berks, where they have no coal, said: Mr. President, I think we 
ought to have a discoverer of coal, and we might as well have him now as at any other time, 
so whether it is Mr. Ginter, or somebody else, makes very little difference to me. I am 
willing to concede to that gentleman that claim. I am willing to go fuither : I am willing 
to take the word of the senator from Carbon for it. If he thinks he is the discoverer ot coal, 
I think so. 

Fortunately the bill was defeated in the House of Representatives. Now, what was in 



76 

be understood that the coinmcnconent of the trade was in 
1807, when the Smith Brothers sent to market and sold 
fifty-five tons. 

Commencement of the Anthracite Coal Trade in the 
United States : 

WYOMING REGION. LEHIGH REGION. 

1807 55 'ons. 

1808 150 " 



1809 200 " 

I8I0 350 " 

1811 450 " 

i8n 500 " 

1813 500 " 

1814 700 " 

1815 icxx> " 

1816 1000 " 

1817 iioo " 

1818 1200 " 

1819 1400 " 

1820 2500 " 1820 36510115. 

The foregoing statement we believe to be absolutely cor- 
rect. The pyramids now in use give the year 1 829 as the com- 
mencement of the coal trade in the Lackawanna region, and 
seven thousand tons sent by the Delaware & Hudson Canal 
Company. The same pyramids start us in the Wyoming 

this bill ? First, to get 1^2000 out of the state treasury to perpetrate 3. falsehood. This under 
false pretences. 

Second. To place on record the ^wxC^^r falsehood that Philip Ginter was the (first) 
discoverer of anthracite coal in Pennsylvania. Mr. Ginter, himself, did not claim that he 
was the discoverer, because "he had heard of stone coal over in Wyoining ." 

Mr. Rapsher is certainly mistaken when he says that historians differ as to whether 
Philip Ginter was the first discoverer or not. No, they do not differ. All historians agree 
that Mr Ginter discovered coal in what is now Carbon county, in 1791, and that he was 
not the first disccnierer of anthracite coal in Fennsyh ania. Ill informed people may think 
he was, but intelligent people know better. Mr. Rapsher states that the discovery of coal 
a hundred years ago the first of next September (1891), was the inception of the Lehigh Coal 
and Navigation Company, and was the beginning of the anthracite coal traffic in Pennsyl- 
vania. The Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company was incorporated February 13, 1822, 
and if its inception was in 1791, it took a long lime to be born — even thirty-one years. The 
beginning of the coal trade was not on the Lehigh, but was on the Susquehanna, and com- 
menced in 1807. Do not let this be forgotten. Senator Green thinks "we ought to have a 
discoverer of coal." "Whether it is Mr. Ginter, or somebody else, makes very little differ- 
ence to (him) me." Most noble senator; you certainly do not speak the words of truth 
and soberness. In a work gotten up by the Central Railroad of New Jersey, in 1891, I read 
the following: "Mauch (^hunk is in the very heart of the anthracite coal regions, and is 
also the birthplace in America of the Black Diamonds." Considering that coal was dis- 
covered on the Susquehanna in 1762, and on Bear Mountain, nine miles west of Mauch 
Chunk, in 1791, Mauch Chunk is a queer kind of a birthplace. It goes on the principle, 
claim everything for the Lehigh. 

What surprises me, is that nothing in particular is claimed for the Schuylkill region. 
About all the worthies who make up tables and pyramids are Pottsville gent lemen, like 
Bannan, Uaddow, Sheafer, ct al. They are probably not familiar with the history of the 
state, and least ot all, wilh the coal trade and its beginning in the Wyoming region. With a 
new generation of better informed gentlemen Wyommg will probably have justice done her 
in the future. 



77 

region in 1842, as shipping by canal forty-seven thousand 
three hundred and forty-six tons — a surely good com- 
mencement, if true, of the first year's business on the canal. 
Our canal was opened in 183 1. In 1830 the North Branch 
Canal was completed to the Nanticoke dam. The first 
boat, "The Wyoming," was built by Hon. John Koons, at 
Shickshinny. It was launched and towed to Nanticoke, 
where she was laden with ten tons of anthracite coal, a 
quantity of flour and other articles. Her destination was 
Philadelphia. The North Branch canal being new, and fill- 
ing slowly with water, "The Wyoming" passed through 
the Nanticoke cliute and thence down the river to North- 
umberland, where she entered the Susquehanna division of 
the Pennsylvania canal, and proceeded, with considerable 
difficulty, by the way of the Union and Schuylkill canals to 
Philadelphia. "The Wyoming" received in that city fifteen 
tons of dry goods, and commenced her return trip ; was 
frozen up in the ice and snow at New Buffalo, in January, 
183 1. The voyage of "The Wyoming" was attended with 
many difficulties and detentions, and embraced a period 
of upwards of three months. The second boat, "The Lu- 
zerne," was built by Captain Derrick Bird, on the river bank 
opposite Wilkes-Barre. She was laden with coal which 
was conveyed to Philadelphia, whence she returned with a 
cargo of merchandise, arriving at the Nanticoke dam in 
July, 1831. The pyramid starts us in 1846 with five 
thousand eight hundred and eighty-six tons by the Lehigh 
railroad. The mistake about this is that the Lehigh & Sus- 
quehanna railroad was completed in 1843. These figures 
from the pyramid are by Benjamin Bannan, and taken from 
"Coal, Iron and Oil." Pearce, in his "Annals of Luzerne 
County," says : "The completion of the Lehigh & Susque- 
hanna railroad in 1843, connecting Wilkes-Barre with White 
Haven, promised another outlet to market for Wyoming 
coal. These improvements, together with the discovery of 



78 

the methods of generating steam on boats, and of smelting 
iron in furnaces by the useof anthracite, created a great and 
increasing demand for coal in all quarters of the state, and 
in .the seaports of the country generally." Let us take 
another pyramid, that of P. W. Sheafer, in the "Coal Regions 
of America." He has the old "chestnut" of the "commence- 
ment of the coal trade" in 1820, on the Lehigh, with three 
hundred and sixty-five tons. He lets us in with the "Wy- 
oming and State Canals, Lykens Valley railroad," in 1834, 
with forty-three thousand seven hundred tons, and the Le- 
high & Susquehanna railroad in 1846. This pyramid busi- 
ness should be reconstructed. The stereotype should be 
destroyed. The apex should be an inch longer and given 
to Wyoming. The commencement of the coal trade be- 
longs to her, and there is no excuse for ignorance or care- 
lessness in the matter. She liad knowledge of coal tzventy- 
nine years, and had burned it hventy-hvo years before it was 
discovered on the Lehigh, and she put her knowledge to 
good use. When the time came the Yankees took their 
coal to market and sold it. None of their coal was thrown 
into the street as worthless. Under the instruction given 
by the Yankees to the purchasers they found that coal 
zvould burn, and nobody laughed at them for making invest- 
ments in "black stones." 

Philip Ginter discovered coal in the Lehigh region in 
1791, on the Matchunkor Bear Mountain, about nine miles 
west of the site of Mauch Chunk. Mr. Ginter tells his own 
story, as follows : 

"When I first came to these mountains some years ago, 
I built a cabin on the east side of the mountain, and man- 
aged, by hunting and trapping, to support my family in a 
rough way. Deer and bears were pretty thick, and during 
the hunting season meat was plentiful, but sometimes we 
ran short of that, and frequently were hard up for such 
necessaries, as could only be purchased with the produce 



79 

of the hunter. One day, after a poor season, when we were 
on short allowance, I had unusually bad luck, and was on 
my way home empty handed and disheartened, tired and 
wet with the rain which commenced falling, when I struck 
my foot against a stone and drove it on before me. It was 
nearly dusk, but light enough remained to show me that it 
was black and shiny. / liad Juard of 'stone coal over in 
\Vyomi)ig, and Jiad frequently pried into rocks in hopes of 
finding it. When I saw the black rock I knew it must be 
stone coal, and on looking round I discovered black dirt 
and a great many pieces of stone coal under the roots of a 
tree that had been blown down. I took pieces of this coal 
home with me, and the next day carried them to Colonel 
Jacob Weiss, at Fort Allen (Weissport). A few days after 
this Colonel Weiss sent for me and offered to pay me for 
my discovery if I would tell him where the coal was found. 
I accordingly offered to show him the place if he would 
get me a small tract of land and water power for a saw mill 
I had in view. This he readily promised and afterwards 
performed. The place was found and a quarry opened in 
the coal mountain. In a few years the discovery made 
hundreds of fortunes, but I may say it ruined me, for my 
land was taken from me by a man who said he owned it 
before I did, and now I am still a poor man." 

Mr. F. E. Saward in The Coal Trade for 1891, states that 
the Northern Anthracite Coal Field is the largest anthra- 
cite basin in the world. It has long been known as the 
Wyoming. Its coal production since i860 is as follows : 

i860 2,914,817 tons. 

1870 7,974,666 " 

1880 11,419,270 " 

1890 18,657,694 " 

To mine this coal requires the services of over 50,000 
men and boys, and this number is steadily increasing rather 
than diminishing. 



8o 

The total amount of anthracite coal mined in 1890, was 
35,865,000 tons. Thus it will be seen that the Wyoming 
region produces 52 per cent, of the total anthracite produc- 
tion. The Schuylkill region in 1890, produced 10,867,821 
tons, or 30.31 per cent., and the Lehigh region, the same 
year, produced 6,329,658 tons, or 17.65 per cent., and the 
Wyoming region, as we have seen, produced 18,657,694 
tons, or 52.04 per cent. 

We must disagree with Mr. Saward, as every body else 
does zvho has any knoivledge of the subject, when he states 
that "the tables compiled by Prof P. W. Sheafer, for the 
years 1 820 to 1868, inclusive, * * * have been adopted 
as the most correct so far as a report of the output is con- 
cerned." (See our remarks in regard to Mr. Sheafer's tables 
in another place). Mr. Saward says, further: "The first 
means of transporting coal from the (Wyoming) coal field 
was by the Delaware & Hudson Canal, from Honcsdale, 
Pa., to Rondout, N. Y., opened in 1829." This is certainly 
ignorance of the first water. Please remember that the coal 
trade on the Susquehanna river commenced in 1807, and 
constantly grew in importance. We have given in another 
place the trade up to 1820. Stewart Pearce's Annals of 
Luzerne County gives the following: "In 1823, Colonel 
W. Lee and George Cahoon, leased the Stivers mines in 
Newport, fourteen feet vein, and employed Timothy Mans- 
field to mine and deliver one thousand tons of coal into arks 
at Lee's Ferry. This coal was sold at Columbia, Pa." Mr. 
Pearce says, further: "P^rom 1823 to 1829, the Susquehan- 
na coal trade increased with considerable rapidity." Again 
Mr. Pearce says : "A coal bed was opened by Calvin 
Stockbridge in 1828, and during three years he sent about 
two thousand tons down the Susquehanna in arks." Mr. 
Saward states, further : "Shipments of coal from the Wilkes- 
Barre district began in 1846, via. the Lehigh and Susque- 
hanna Railroad, and the Lehigh Canal, and later by the 



8i 

Lehigh Valley Railroad." We are sorry, exceedingly 
sorry that Mr. Saward states that "shipments of coal from 
the Wilkes-Barre district began in 1 846." Why, Mr. Sheafer 
does better than this. He starts us in the Wyoming region 
in 1842, as shipping by canal. It is true our canal was 
opened in 1831, but Messrs. Sheafer and Saward were not 
aware of this fact, or they would agree on their table. Mr. 
Pearce, in his Annals, states that there was 41,210 tons of 
coal shipped from the Wyoming valley, by the North Branch 
Canal, South, in 1841. 

In 1842 47.346 tons. 

" 1843 57,740 " 

" 1844 114,906 " 

" 1845 178,401 " 

" 1846 166.923 " 

Both Messrs. Sheafer and Saward agree that the Lehigh 
and Susquehanna Railroad was opened in 1846. The Le- 
high and Susquehanna railroad was completed in 1843, but 
Messrs. Sheafer and Saward were not aware of this fact. All 
ive ask is that justice be done to the Wyoming region. We 
are entitled to it and expect it. Mr. Saward further states, 
that in 1850 the Pennsylvania Coal Company began opera- 
tions (which is correct) ; four years later the D. L. & W. R. 
R. Co. began mining and shipping coal. The Lackawanna 
coal field was opened to the coal trade in 185 i (not 1854), 
by the construction of the northern di\ision of the D., L. 
& W. R. R. Co. 

William Hooker Smith, M. D., removed from the prov- 
ince of New York, to Wilkes-Barre, in 1772, where he pur- 
chased land in 1774. His mind active, keen and ready, 
looked beyond the ordinary conceptions of his day, as is 
shown by his purchased right, in 1 791, to dig iron ore and 
stone coal in Pittston, long before the character of coal as a 
heating agent in this country was understood, and the same 
year that the hunter, Ginter, accidently discovered "black 



82 

stones" on Bear Mountain. These purchases, attracting no 
other notice than general ridicule, were made in Exeter, 
Plymouth, Pittston, Providence and Wilkes-Barre, between 
1 79 1 -8. The first was made July i, 1791, of Mr. Scott of 
Pittston, who, for the sum of five shillings, Pennsylvania 
money, sold "one-half of any minerals, ores of iron, or other 
metal which he, the said Smith, or his heirs and assigns, 
may discover on the hilly lands of the .said John Scott, by 
the red spring." Of others, the language of the purchase 
was as follows : "The privilege to dig, delve and raze the 
ore, or mineral of stone coal, or iron ore on my land, free 
and clear, by William Hooker Smith." 

It is impossible, at this date, to state who was the first 
person to discover that anthracite coal could be used for 
domestic purposes, but the weight of authority seems to be 
that Oliver Evans was the person. In a letter written by 
him to Jacob Cist, Esq., he says : "Being required to give 
my opinion of the qualities of the Lehi coals, I do certify to 
those whom it may concern, that I have experienced the 
use of them in a close stove and also in a fire place that 
may be closed and opened at pleasure, so contracted as to 
cause a brisk current of air to pass up through a small con- 
tracted grate on which they were laid. I find them more 
difficult to be kindled than the Virginia coal, yet a small 
quantity of dr)^ wood laid on the grate under them is suf- 
ficient to ignite them, which being done they continue to 
burn while a sufficient quantity be added to keep up the 
combustion, occasionalh' stirring them to shake down the 
ashes. They, however, require no more attention than 
other coal, and consume away, leaving only a very light and 
white colored ashes ; producing a greater degree of heat 
than any other coal that I am acquainted with, perhaps, in 
proportion to their weight, they being much the heaviest. 
They produce no smoke, contain no sulphur, and when well 



83 

ignited exhibit a vivid, bright appearance, all which render 
them suitable for warming rooms. And as they do not 
corrode mettle as much as other coals, they will probably 
be the more useful for steam engines, breweries, distilleries, 
smelting of metals, drying malt, &c. But the furnaces will 
require to be properly constructed, with a grate contracted 
to a small space through which the air is to pass up through 
the coal, permitting none to pass above them into the flue 
of the chimney until they are well ignited, when the doors 
of the stove or furnace or close fire place may be thrown 
open to enjoy the benefits of light and radiant heat in the 
front. A very small quantity of them is not sufficient to 
keep up the combustion ; they require nearly a cubic foot 
to make a very warm fire, consuming about half a bus. in 
about fourteen hours. "Oliver Evans. 

"Philadelphia, February 15, 1803." 

It a letter to Jacob Cist, Esq., Frederick Graff also writes 
as follows: "Having made a trial of the Lehi coal some 
time in the year 1802 at the Pennsylvania bank, in the large 
stove, I found them to answer for that purpose exceeding 
well. They give an excellent heat and burn lively. It is 
my opinion they are nearly equal to double the quantity of 
any other coal brought to this market for durability ; of 
course less labour is required in attending the fire. Mr. 
Davis, superintendent of the water works, has also made a 
trial of them for the boiler of the engine imployed in that 
work, and has found them to answer well. It must be ob- 
served a draft is necessary when first kindled. For the use 
of familys the fire place can be so constructed, with a small 
expense, as to have the sufficient draft required. My opin- 
ion is they will be found cheaper than wood. They burn 
clean. No smoke or sulphur is observed, or any dirt flying 
when stirred, which is a great objection to all other coal for 
family use. If the chimneys for the burning of those coal 



84 

arc properly constructed, and a trial made, I am well con- 
vinced that most of the citizens of Philadelphia would give 
them preference to wood. "Fred'k Graff, 

" Clerk of the Water Works of Philadelphia. 
"Phila., May i, 1805." 

The originals of these letters are in the possession of our 
Society. 

Jacob Cist, at the time these letters were written, if not 
an actual resident of this city at that time, was a very fre- 
quent visitor. In 1807 he married Sarah Hollenback, 
daughter of Judge Hollenback. 

At an early day his attention was attracted towards the 
uses of anthracite coal. He was a boy of ten years when 
his father experimented on the Lehigh coal, and he might 
possibly have seen him at work. He must often have 
heard his father conversing with Colonel Weiss (the uncle 
of Jacob Cist), both in Philadelphia and Bethlehem, on the 
feasibility of opening their mines and making a market for 
the Lehigh coal, long before he was old enough to appreci- 
ate the importance of the undertaking or the disadvantages 
under which these pioneers of the coal trade labored in per- 
-suading people of the practicability of using stone coal as a fuel. 

Jacob Cist was undoubtedly the first person to burn 
anthracite coal in our city. The letter of Oliver Evans, with 
its perfect description of burning anthracite coal in a grate 
or sto\'e, accomplished the result. No better description 
could be given nowadays to those unfamiliar with coal for 
fuel than the letter of Mr. Evans. Mr. Cist was an enter- 
prising citizen, perfectly familiar and interested in coal. He 
made the "experiment" and found that it would "answer the 
purpose of fuel, making a cleaner and better fire at less ex- 
pense than burning wood in the common way." As early 
as the year 1805 he conceived the plan of manufacturing a 
mineral black for printers' ink, leather lacquer, blacking, 
&c., from the Lehigh coal and the results of his experiments 



85 

were secured to him by patent in 1808. This patent was 
considered to be worth upwards of five thousand dollars, but 
a number of law suits arising from a constant infringement 
of it by manufacturers so annoyed Mr. Cist that he was glad 
to dispose of it for a less sum. It is said that after the de- 
struction of the patent office records by fire some one else 
took out a patent for the same idea and is now working 
under it. In the early days he made a study of our adja- 
cent coal fields, especially at the mines of the Smith Brothers 
at Plymouth, and the old Lord Butler opening. 

We believe that from 1803 anthracite coal was used for 
domestic purposes in this city. We have not before us the 
population of Wilkes-Barre at that time, but in 1820 she 
had a population of seven hundred and thirty-two. In 1803 
the population probably did not exceed three hundred. 
These letters, written to one of her citizens, would excite 
comment and would be talked over by the entire population, 
men, women and children. The social standard of her citi- 
zens at that time was perfect equality. There were no ranks 
or grades. The apprentice, the laborer, the physician, the 
merchant and the lawyer were on speaking and visiting 
terms. As another writer has said, in speaking of the early 
history of coal : "Such was the theme of univ^ersal rejoicing 
throughout the valley that the event was discussed at every 
fireside, the topic went with the people to church, and was 
diffused throughout the congregation at large by common 
assent ; it entered for a while into all conversations at home ; 
it silenced every adverse criticism, as it gave the signal for 
long and mutual congratulations * * * where friend 
and foe alike acquiesced in the truth that Wyoming was 
freighted with infinite fortune." Coal up to this time had 
been mined by farmers and blacksmiths for their own use. 
In 1805 Abraham Williams, the pioneer miner, made his 
appearance in the Federalist, published at Wilkes-Barre, 

with the following advertisement : 
6 



86 

"The subscriber takes this method of informing the pub- 
lic that he understands miners work. He has worked at it 
the greater part of twenty-three years in the mines of Wales, 
one year and a half in Schuyler's copper mines in New Jer- 
sey and three years in Ogden's in the same state. If any 
body thinks there is any ore on his lands, or wants to sink 
wells, blow rock or stones, he understands it wet or dry, on 
the ground or under the ground. He will work by the day 
or by the solid foot or yard, or by the job, at reasonable 
wages, for country produce. 

"He works cheap for country' produce, 
But cash I think he ■\vont refuse. 
Money is good for many uses, 
Despise me not nor take me scorn, 
Because I am a Welsliman by my born, 
Now I am a true American, 
With every good to everj' man." 

"Abraham Williams." 

Doctor Thomas C. James of Philadelphia, in Hazanfs 
Reg-ish'r,' gives an account of a visit that he made in 1804 to 
the Lehigh coal region. He closes his article as follows : 
"The operations and success of the present Lehigh Coal 
and Navigation Company must be well known to the coun- 
try ; the writer will therefore close this communication by 
stating that he commenced burning the anthracite coal in 
the winter of 1804, and has continued its use ever since, be- 
lieving, from his own experience of its utility, that it would 
ultimately become the general fuel of this as well as other 
cities." 

Hon. Samuel Breck was a prominent citizen of Philadel- 
phia. "His Recollections," with passages from his note 
books, 1 771-1862, were edited by H. E. Scudder, and pub- 
lished by Porter & Coates in 1877. It contains this pas- 
sage, among others : 

"December 9, 1807. This morning I rode to Philadel- 
phia and purchased a newly invented iron grate calculated 



8; 

for coal, in which I mean to use that fuel if it answers my 
expectations." 

"Dec. 26, 1807. By my experiment on coal fuel I find 
that one fire place will burn from three to three and a half 
bushels per week in hard weather and about two and a half 
in moderate weather. This av^erages three bushels for 
twenty-five weeks (the period of burning fire in parlors). 
Three times twenty-five gives seventy-five bushels for a 
single hearth, which, at forty-five cents, is thirty-three dol- 
lars and seventy-five cents, more than equal to six cords of 
oak wood at five dollars and fifty cents, and is, by conse- 
quence, no economy ; but at thirty-three cents per bushel, 
which is the usual summer price, it will do very well." 

The next person whom it is said burned coal in grates 
in the early days of coal fuel was Hon. Jesse Fell, of this 
city. He was a blacksmith in his early days, and had used 
coal in a nailery as early as 1788. He made the following 
entry on the last leaf of a book entitled "Illustrations of 
Masonry by William Preston — Alexandria — Printed by 
Cottom & Stewart, and sold at their Book Stores in Alex- 
andria and PVedericksburg, 1804." On the fly leaf in Judge 
Fell's handwriting is the following : "Jesse Fell's Book, 
February 15th, 1808." 

"February 11, of Masonry 5808. Made the expenncnt 
of burning the common stone coal of this Valley in a grate, 
in a common fire place, in my house, and find it will answer 
the purpose of fuel, making a clearer and better fire at less 
expence than burning wood in the common way. 

"Jesse Fell. 

"Borough of Wilkes-Barre, Feb'y 18, 1808." 

We do not believe, as some do, that Jesse Fell was the 
first person to burn anthracite coal in a grate in this county. 
He makes no claim in the above that he was. Those who 
make that claim, do so for the following reasons : 

I. The entry as stated above. 



88 

2. That he "constructed a grate of green hickory sapHngs 
and placed it in a large fire place in his bar room, and filled 
it with broken coal. A quantity of dry wood was placed 
under the grate and set on fire, and the flame spreading 
through the coal it soon ignited, and before the wooden 
grate was consumed the success of the experiment was 
fully demonstrated." 

3. That Hon. Thomas Cooper, president judge of the 
courts of Luzerne county, "became very angry to find that 
he had been superseded in the discovery, and he walked the 
floor muttering to himself, 'that it was strange an illiterate 
man like Fell' (which was not true) 'should discover what 
he had tried in vain to find out.' " 

To these we answer : 

I. There is no claim in the entry that Judge Fell was the 
first person to burn anthracite in a grate. He states he 
made the 'Uwpenuent!' It is very strange that an "experi- 
ment" should be made after a fact had been fully demon- 
strated. We think that he burned coal in a grate as early 
as 1803, as that was the time when, we believe, coal was 
first burned successfully in grates in Wilkes-Barre. If he 
did not he was certainly behind the times. We do not 
think that he would wait five years to make the "experi- 
ment" after his friend Jacob Cist received letters from 
Messrs. Fvans & Graff We also think that if he made the 
experiment in 1 808 it would be published in The Lnzenie Fed- 
eralist. Mr. Miner would never slight his friend in that wa\'. 
We think this entry was made at a date subsequent to 1808. 

V. L. Maxwell, in his lectures on Mineral Coal, saj's : 
"At that day the Hon. Charles Miner was publishing in 
this town The Luzerne Federalist, the only newspaper then 
printed in this part of the state. I have had the pleasure 
of examining its files, but I find nothing published in 1808 
respecting coal." It was rather late in 1808 to make an 
"experiment" after the fact had been fully demonstrated by 



89 

Messrs. Evans, Graff, Davis, James and Breck, several years 
before. The coal trade was opened by the Smith Brothers 
in 1807, and their first shipment was made in that year, and 
the year after was certainly a bad time to make the "experi- 
ment" of burning coal in a grate. 

2. We do not believe that a blacksmith, as Mr. Fell was, 
would "construct a grate of green hickory saplings," and 
make the experiment of burning coal in it. A bar iron 
grate would be so much easier to make and would prove 
more satisfactory. We are not foolish enough to think, 
with our knowledge of coal, that a quantity of dry wood 
placed under a grate of green hickory and set on fire would 
prove the experiment of burning coal in a grate. The ex- 
periment, it seems to us, would be to dry the green hick- 
ory and then consume it and leave the coal down without 
much ignition. 

3. Judge Cooper was born in London in 1759, and came 
to this country in 179S, and was, therefore, thirty-six years 
of age when he came to America. It is probable that be- 
fore he came to this country he never saw any other fuel 
than coal, and that burned in grates. It is not at all likely 
that he would become very angry to find that he had been 
superseded in the discovery. It was not a new thing to him 
and he had no discovery to make. 

Mrs. Hannah C. Abbott, a resident of this city, the widow 
of John Abbott, and daughter of Hon. Cornelius Court- 
right, was born February 7, 1797, in Wilkes-Barre (now 
Plains) township. Her father's farm adjoined that of Daniel 
Gore, whom we have seen, burned coal in his blacksmith 
shop as early as 1769. She has been familiar with coal 
since her earliest recollection, having seen Mr. Gore burn 
it in his blacksmith shop, and in a grate in his cellar kitchen. 
She has no remembrance as to who the first person was 
who burned coal in a grate, but is certain that it was not 
Mr. Fell, as she never heard the claim made until she was 



90 

grown up. In 1808 she was eleven years of age, and if Mr. 
Fell burned coal in a grate at that time she would certainly 
remember it, as her father and Mr. Fell were particular 
friends, and both belonged to the same political party. Mrs. 
Abbott, notwithstanding her advanced age, is in the full 
possession of all her mental faculties, and is about the only 
person living who has a perfect knowledge of the very 
early coal trade of the valley. 

If Judge Fell made the discovery that coal could be 
burned in grates successfully, he should have the honor due 
all persons wdio make valuable discoveries, and we would 
be the last person to rob him of his honors. But in the 
light we have to-day we must say that he was not the first 
person, but that in 1808 coal was a common fuel in this 
city, and was burned by all persons who had not wood in 
profusion. Improbable assertion, unreasonable conjectures 
and old wives' fables are not the best evidence that Judge 
Fell was the first person to burn anthracite coal in a grate 
in this city or anywhere else. 

The following authorities, in part, have been consulted in 
preparing this paper : 

Buck, Wm. J., Article by, in Report of the Transactions of the Pennsylvania State Agri- 
cultural Society. 

Chance, H. M., Report of the Mining Methods and Appliances used in the Anthracite Coal 
Fields — Second Geological Survey of Pennsylvania. 

Chapman, I. A., History of Wyoming. 

Daddow & liannon, Coal, Iron and Oil. 

Encyclopxdia Brittanica. 

Hazard, Samuel, Register of Pennsylvania. 

Hollister, H., History of the Lackawanna Valley. 

Hoyt, H. M., Brief of a Title in ihe Seventeen Townships. 

Kulp, Geo. B., Families of the Wyoming Valley. 

Macaulay, Lord, History of England. 

Macfarlane, James, Coal Regions of America. 

Maxwell, V. L., Mineral Coal. 

Miner, Charles, History of Wyoming. 

Pearce, Stewart, Annals of Luzerne County. 

Plumb, H. B., History of Hanover. 

Rees, Abraham, Cyclopsedia of Arts, Science and Literature. 

Saward, Frederick E., The Coal Trade. 

Watson, John F., Annals of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania in the Olden Time. 

Wright, Hendrick. B., Historical Sketches of Plymouth. , 



SABBATH— SUNDAY. 



SUNDAY LEGISLATION. 



SABBATH-SUNDAY, 



SUNDAY LEGISLATION. 



In the beginning, after the Almighty created the heavens 
and the earth, and all the host of them, He rested on the 
seventh day from all His work which He had made. And 
God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because that 
in it He had rested from all His work which He had made. 
This was the commencement of the Sabbath day. The 
Lord Jehovah blessed the day, but there was no injunction 
to man to keep it holy, unless implied from the blessing and 
sanctification. 

Eusebius of Caesarea (bishop from 315-340 A. D.) dis- 
cusses the question of the observance of the Sabbath in his 
Commentary on Psalm xcii (xci of his catalogue). He takes 
the ground of Justin and Irenaeus, that the early patriarchs 
knew no Sabbaths, and were justified without the observance 
of them. He says: "The just and pious men who were 
before Moses neither knew nor observed Sabbath days. 
Neither Abraham, nor Isaac, nor Jacob, nor they who were 
before them, seem to have known the Sabbath." He argues 
that man's true rest, and therefore his true Sabbath, is to 
be found in the contemplation of God, and that Moses, 
dealing with shadows and symbols, gave the people a fixed 
day, that on this at least they might be free for meditation 
on divine things. The Jewish Sabbaths, however, became 
false Sabbaths, and God said He could not endure them. 
Wherefore the Word, by the new covenant, transferred the 
feast of the Sabbath to the rising of the light, and gave us 
the image of the true rest, namely, the saving day, the 
Lord's Day, the first day of light, on which the Saviour of 



94 

the world, having conquered death, entered on a Sabbath 
becoming to God, and a most bhssful rest. Whatever, 
things it was fitting to do on the Sabbath we have trans- 
ferred to the Lord's Day, because it has precedence, is first, 
and is more honorable than the Jewish Sabbath. (Com. on 
Psa. xci : 2,3.) 

The Jews appear to have forgotten the first of all the com- 
mandments of God : "Thou earnest down also upon Mount 
Sinai and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them 
right judgments and true laws, good statutes and command- 
ments: and viadcst knoiun iDito thcni thy holy SabbatJi, and 
commandest them precepts, statutes and laws, by the hand 
of Moses thy servant." (Nehemiah ix : 13, 14.) 

Centuries pass ; the Israelites are about to leave Egypt, 
the passover is instituted, "and this day shall be unto you 
for a memorial ; and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord 
throughout your generations: ye shall keep it a feast by 
an ordinance for ever. Seven days shall ye eat unleavened 
bread ; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your 
houses : for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first 
day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from 
Israel. And in the first day there shall be a holy convoca- 
tion, and in the seventh day there shall be a holy convoca- 
tion to you ; no manner of work shall be done in them, save 
that which every man must eat, that only may be done 
of you." (Exodus xii : 14-16). This is the first place 
where we meet with the account of an assembly collected 
for the mere purpose of religious worship. Such assemblies 
are called holy convocations, which is a very appropriate 
appellation for a religious assembly ; they were called 
together by the express command of God, and were to be 
employed in a work of holiness. 

Four weeks and more pass, the children of Israel are in 
the wilderness, manna is sent down from heaven. And it 
came to pass that on the sixth day they gathered twice as 



95 

much bread, two omers for one man, and all the rulers of 
the congregation came and told Moses. And he said unto 
them, This is that which the Lord hath said, to-morrow is 
the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord ; bake that ye 
will bake to-day, and seethe that ye will seethe, and that 
which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the 
morning. * * * And Moses said eat that to-day, for 
to-day is a Sabbath unto the Lord, to-day ye shall not find 
it in the field. Six days ye shall gather it, but on the seventh 
day, which is the Sabbath, in it there shall be none. And 
it came to pass that there went out some of the people on 
the seventh day for to gather and they found none. And 
the Lord said unto Moses : How long refuse ye to keep my 
commandment^ and my laws ? See for that the Lord hath 
given you the Sabbath, therefore He giveth you on the 
sixth day the bread of two days ; abide ye every man in 
his place ; let no man go out of his place on the seventh 
day. So the people rested on the seventh day. Two 
weeks and more pass and the Almighty is again heard ; 
then a positive command goes forth from the smok- 
ing top of Mount Sinai. Remember the Sabbath day to 
keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy 
work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord 
thy God, in it thou shall not do any work, * * * for 
in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and 
all that in them is, and rested the seventh day ; where- 
fore the Lord blessed the seventh day and hallowed it. 
Here the time in which man shall work and in which he 
shall not is fixed by Deity, himself, in a manner too solemn 
to be forgotten or disregarded. It was pronounced with 
the voice of a loud trumpet, midst the lightnings and the 
quakings of the mount. And Moses gathered all the con- 
gregation of the children of Israel together and said unto 
them, these are the words which the Lord hath commanded 
hat ye should do them. Six days shall work be done, but 



96 

on the seventh day there shall be to you a holy day, a Sab- 
bath of rest to the Lord ; whosoever doeth work therein shall 
be put to death. Thus was proclaimed the first punishment 
for a violation of the Sabbath day. And while the children 
of Israel were in the wilderness they found a man that 
gathered sticks upon the Sabbath day. And they that 
found him gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and 
Aaron, and unto all the congregation. And they put him 
in ward because it was not declared what should be done 
to him. And the Lord said unto Moses — the man shall 
be surely put to death ; all the congregation shall stone 
him with stones without the camp. And all the congrega- 
tion brought him without the camp and stoned him with 
stones, and he died as the Lord commanded Moses. 

The stoning of the Bible and of the Talmud was not as 
commonly supposed — a pell-mell casting of stones at a crimi- 
nal. The manner was as follows : The criminal was con- 
ducted to an elevated place, divested of his attire, if a man, 
and then hurled to the ground below. The height of the 
eminence from which he was thrown was always more than 
fifteen feet ; the higher, within certain limits, the better. 
The violence of the concussion caused death by dislocating 
the spinal cord. The elevation was not, however, to be so 
high as to greatly disfigure the body. This was a tender 
point with the Jews ; man was created in God's image, and 
it was not permitted to desecrate the temple shaped by 
heaven's own hand. The first of the witnesses who had 
testified against the condemned man acted as executioner, 
in accordance with Deut. xvii : 7. If the convict fell face 
downward, he was turned on his back. If he was not quite 
dead, a stone so heavy as to require two persons to carry 
it, was taken to the top of the eminence whence he had 
been thrown, the second of the witnesses then hurled the 
stone so as to fall upon the culprit below. This process, 
however, was seldom necessary, the semi-stupefied condi- 



97 

tion of the condemned, and the height from which he was 
cast insuring, in the generality of cases, instant death. 
Previous to the carrying into effect a sentence of death, a 
death-draught, as it was called, was administered to the 
unfortunate victim. The beverage was composed of myrrh 
and frankincense {Icbana), in a cup of vinegar or light wine. 
It produced a kind of stupefaction, a semi-conscious con- 
dition of mind and body, rendering the convict indifferent 
to his fate and scarcely sensible to pain. As soon as the 
culprit had partaken of the stupefying draught the execu- 
tion took place. 

The later Jewish Sabbath, observed in accordance with 
the rules of the Scribes, was a very peculiar institution, and 
formed one of the most marked distinctions between the He- 
brews and other nations, as appears in a striking way from 
the fact that on this account, alone, the Romans found 
themselves compelled to exempt the Jews from all military 
service. The rules of the Scribes enumerated thirty nine 
main kinds of work forbidden on the Sabbath, and each of 
these prohibitions gave rise to new subtleties. Jesus's 
disciples, for example, w^ho plucked ears of corn in passing 
through a field on the holy day, had, according to Rabbin- 
ical casuistry, violated the third of the thirty-nine rules, 
which forbade harvesting ; and in healing the sick Jesus, 
himself, broke the rule that a sick man should not receive 
medical aid on the Sabbath, unless his life was in danger. 
In fact, as our Lord puts it, the Rabbinical theory seemed 
to be that the Sabbath was not made for man, but man {ox 
the Sabbath, the observance of which was so much an end 
in itself that the rules prescribed for it did not require to be 
justified by appeal to any larger principle of religion or hu- 
manity. The precepts of the law were valuable in the eyes 
of the Scribes, because they were the seal of Jewish partic- 
ularism, the barrier erected between the world at large and 
the exclusive community of Jehovah's grace. For this pur- 



98 

pose the most arbitrary precepts were the most efifective, 
and none were more so than the compHcated rules of Sab- 
bath observance. The ideal of the Sabbath, which all these 
rules aimed at realizing, was absolute rest from everything 
that could be called work; and even the exercise of those 
offices of humanity which the strictest Christian Sabbatar- 
ians regard as a service to God, and therefore as specially 
appropriate to His day, was looked on as work. To save 
life was allowed, but only because danger to life "super- 
seded the Sabbath." In like manner the special ritual at 
the temple prescribed for the Sabbath by the Pentateuchal 
law was not regarded as any part of the hallowing of the 
sacred day, on the contrary, the rule was that in this regard 
"Sabbath was not kept in the sanctuaiy." Strictly speak- 
ing, therefore, the Sabbath was neither a day of relief to 
toiling humanity, nor a day appointed for public worship ; 
the positive duties of its observance were to wear one's best 
clothes, eat, drink and be glad. (Justified from Iviii Isaiah : 

13. 14)- 

A more directly religious element, it is true, was intro- 
duced by the practice of attending the synagogue service, 
but it is to be remembered that this service was primarily 
regarded not as an act of worship, but as a meeting for in- 
struction in the law. So far, therefore, as the Sabbath ex- 
isted for any end outside itself, it was an institution to help 
every Jew to learn the law. That the old Hebrew Sabbath 
was quite different from the Rabbinical Sabbath, is demon- 
strated in the trenchant criticism which Jesus directed 
against the latter. (Matthew xii : 1-14; Mark ii : 27). 
The general position which He takes up, that "the Sabbath 
is made for man, and not man for the Sabbath," is only a 
special application of the wider principle, that the law is not 
an end in itself, but a help towards the realization in life of 
the great ideal of love to God and man, which is the sum 
of all true religion. But Jesus further maintains that this 



99 

view of the law, as a whole, and the interpretation of the 
Sabbath law which it involves, can be historically justified 
from the old testament. And, in this connexion, He in- 
troduces two of the main methods to which historical criti- 
cism of the old testament has recurred in modern times. 
He appeals to the oldest history, rather than to the Penta- 
teuchal code, as province that the later conception of the 
law was unknown in ancient times (Matthew xii : 3-4), and 
to the exceptions to the Sabbath law which the Scribes, 
themselves, allowed in the interests of worship (verse 5), or 
humanity (verse 11), as showing that the Sabbath must 
originally have been devoted to purposes of worship and 
humanity, and was not always the purposeless, arbitrary 
thing which the schoolmen made it to be. The Sabbath 
exercised a twofold influence on the early Christian church. 
On the one hand, the weekly celebration of the resurrection 
on the Lord's day could not have arisen, except in a circle 
that already knew the week as a sacred division of time, 
and, moreov^er, the manner in which the Lord's day was ob- 
served, was directly influenced by the synagogue service. 
On the other hand, the Jewish Christians continued to keep 
the Sabbath like other points of the old law. Eusebius re- 
marks that the Ebionites observed both the Sabbath and 
the Lord's day, and this practice obtained, to some extent, 
in much wider circles, for the Apostolical Constitutions 
recommend that the Sabbath shall be kept as a memorial 
feast of the creation, as well as the Lord's day ; as a me- 
morial of the resurrection. The festal character of the Sab- 
bath was long recognized in a modified form in the Eastern 
church, by a prohibition of fasting on that day, which was 
also a point in the Jewish Sabbath law. On the other hand 
Paul had quite distinctly laid down from the first days of 
Gentile Chistianity that the Jewish Sabbath was not bind- 
ing on Christians (Romans xiv : 5 ; Galations iv : 10; Col. 
ii : 16), and controversy with Judaizers led in process of 



lOO 

time to direct condemnation of those who still kept the 
Jewish day. According to all the four evangelists the res- 
urrection of our Lord took place on the first day of the 
week after Plis crucifixion, and the fourth Gospel describes 
a second appearance to Mis disciples as having occurred 
eight days afterwards. Apart from this central fact of the 
Christian faith, the Pentecostal outpouring of the Spirit 
seven weeks later, described in Acts ii, cannot have failed 
to give an additional sacredncss to the day in the eyes of 
the earliest converts. Whether the primitive church in 
Jerusalem had any special mode of observing it in its daily 
meetings held in the temple we cannot tell, but as there is 
no doubt that in these gatherings the recurrence of the 
Sabbath was marked by appropriate Jewish observances, so 
it ;s not improbable that the worship on the first day of the 
week had also some distinguishing feature. Afterwards, at 
all events, when Christianity had been carried toother places 
where, from the nature of the case, daily meetings for wor- 
ship were impossible, the first day of the week was every- 
where set apart for this purpose. Thus, Acts xx : 7 shows 
that the disciples in Troas met weekly on the first day of the 
week for exhortation and the breaking of bread (I Corinth- 
ians xvi : 2) ; implies, atr least, some observance of the da)', 
and the solemn commemorative character it had very early 
acquired is strikingly indicated by an incidental expression 
of the writer of the Apocalypse, i : 10, who, for the first 
time, gives it that name — The Lord's day— by which it is 
almost invariably referred to by all writers of the century 
immediately succeeding apostolic times. Among the indi- 
cations of the nature and universality of its observance dur- 
ing this period, may be mentioned the precept in the (re- 
cently discovered) Teaching of the Apostles (chap. xiv). 
"And on the Lord's day of the Lord come together and break 
bread and give thanks after confessing your transgressions, 
that your sacrifice may be pure." Ignatius speaks of those 



lOI 

whom he addresses as no longer Sabbatizing, but Hving in 
the observance of the Lord's day, on which also our life 
sprang up again. Justin Martyr, during the reign of An- 
tonius Pius, 1 38-161, says of the weekly meetings of the 
Christians : "And on the day called Sunday, all who live 
in the cities or in the country gather together to one place, 
and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the 
prophets are read, as long as time permits ; then when the 
reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs and ex- 
horts to the imitation of these good things. * * * 3ut 
Sunday is the day on which we hold our common assem- 
bly, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought 
a change in the darkness and matter, made the world ; and 
Jesus Christ, our Saviour, on the same day rose from the 
dead ; for He was crucified on the day before that of Saturn, 
and on the day after that of Saturn, which is the day of the 
sun, having appeared to His apostles and disciples, He 
taught them those things which we have submitted to you 
also for your consideration." 

A new name now appears for the first day of the week 
which is not found in either the old or new Testament — 
Sunday; so called because this day was anciently dedicated 
to the sun as its worship. Sun worship was the worship 
of the greater part of the people of the East. We are re- 
minded in God's word to take good heed unto ourselves 
lest thou lift up thine eyes to heaven, and when thou seest 
the sun, the moon and the stars shouldcst be driven to wor- 
ship them. (Deuteronomy iv : 19). This term Sunday, 
was afterwards adopted by Christian nations. It is also 
called the Lord's day, the first day of the week, the Sab- 
bath. Sabbath — rest — day of rest — the day which God ap- 
pointed to be observed as a day of rest from all secular 
labor or employment, for the study of His law and for 
praise, to be kept holy and to be consecrated to His service 
and worship. Sabbath is not strictly synonomous with 



102 

Sunday. Sunday is a mere name of a day. Sabbath is the 
name of an institution. Sunday is the Sabbath of the 
Christians. Saturday is the Sabbath of the Jews. It has 
been contended whether Sunday is a name that ought to 
be used by Christians. The words Sabbath and Lord's 
day, say some, are the only names mentioned in Scripture 
respecting this day. To call it Sunday is to set our wis- 
dom before the wisdom of God, and to give that glory to a 
pagan idol, which is due to Him alone. The ancient Romans 
called it by this name, because, upon it, they worshipped 
the sun, and shall Christians keep up the memory of that 
which was highly displeasing to God by calling the Sab- 
bath by that name rather than by either of those he hath ap- 
pointed ? The earliest civil law on the subject of Sunday is 
that of the Emperor Constantine, March 7, A. D. 321. The 
following is the decree : "On the venerable day of the sun 
let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let 
all workshops be closed. In the country, however, persons 
engaged in the work of cultivation may freely and lawfully 
continue their pursuits, because it often happens that another 
day is not so suitable for grain-sowing or for vine-planting, 
lest by neglecting the proper moment for such operations, 
the bounty of heaven be lost." Constantine, at the time of 
issuing this decree, was a Pagan, who worshipped the god 
Apollo, whose sacred day was the first day of the week. 
Webster says : "Apollo was a deity among the Greeks 
and Romans, and worshipped under the name of Phoebus, 
the sun." Gibbon, in his "Decline and Fall of the Roman 
lunpire," says : "The devotion of Constantine was more 
peculiarly directed to the genius of the sun, the Apollo of 
Greek and Roman m)'thology, and he was pleased to be 
represented with the s)'mbols of the god of light and poetry. 
* * * The altars of Apollo were crowned with the votive 
offerings of Constantine, and the credulous multitude were 
taught to believe that the emperor was permitted to behold 



103 

with mortal eyes the visible majesty of their tutelar deity. 
* * * The sun was universally celebrated as the invin- 
cible guide and protector of Constantine." Dr. Schaff, in 
his "History of the Christian Church," says : "Constantine 
enjoined the civil observance of Sunday, though not as 
Dies Domini (Lord's day), but as Dies Solis, day of the 
sun, in conformity to his worship of Apollo, and in company 
with his ordinance for the regular consulting of the Jiarus- 
pice. The edict of the sun's day was issued March 7, that 
for consulting the liaruspice was issued the day following. 
This edict of March 8, concerned the inspection of the en- 
trails of beasts as a means of foretelling future events. Let 
us examine a Roman army at the moment when it is pre- 
paring for battle. The consul orders a victim to be brought 
and strikes it with the axe, it falls, its entrails will indicate 
the will of the gods. An liaruspice examines them, and if 
the signs are favorable the consul gives the signal for battle. 
The most skillful dispositions, the most favorable circum- 
stances are of no account if the gods do not permit the 
battle. In 323, according to the opinion of Mosheim, Con- 
stantine made a profession of Christianity. Other writers 
give a later date. The Encyclopedia Brittanicse says : "The 
notion of conversion in a sense of a real acceptance of the 
new religion, and a thorough rejection of the old, is incon- 
sistent with the hesitating attitude in which he stood towards 
both. Much of this may indeed be due to motives of poli- 
tical expediency, but there is a good deal that cannot be 
so explained. Paganism must still have been an operative 
belief with the man who, down almost to the close of his 
life, retained so many heathen superstitions. He was, at 
best, only half heathen, half Christian, who could seek to 
combine the worship of Christ with the worship of Apollo, 
having the name of the one and the figure of the other im- 
pressed upon his coins. Dr. Schaff further says : "When 
at last, on his death bed, Constantine submitted to baptism, 



104 

with the remark : 'Now let us cast away all duplicity,' he 
honestly admitted the conflict of two antagonistic principles 
which swayed his private character and public life." We 
herewith give a brief summary of the acts of Constantine, 
which seems to have a bearing on his inconsistent position 
as a pagan and a professed Christian : 

A. D. 3 1 2, professed to have a vision of the cross. There 
is, however, no evidence that he ever spoke of such a thing 
before the year 322. 

A. D. 313, issued the edict of Milan, stopping persecution 
on account of religion. 

A. D. 321, March 7, issued a decree that certain classes 
abstain from labor on "the venerable day of the sun." 

A. D. 321, March 8, issued a decree for consulting har- 
uspices — a practice purely pagan. 

A. D. 323, according to the opinion of IMoshcim, made a 
profession of Christianity. Other writers give a later date. 

A. D. 324, murdered Licinius, in violation of his solemn 
oath. 

A. D. 325, convened the council of Nice, and presided 
over its deliberations. 

A. D. 325, after the council, revoked the edict of Milan, 
and copied the penal regulations under which Diocletian 
had persecuted the Christians, and employed them in per- 
secuting those who did not accept the Christian faith. 

A. D. 326, murdered his sc^n Crispus, and his nephew 
Licinius, and a great number of their friends. 

A. D. 330, May 11, dedicated Constantinople to the vir- 
gin Mary. 

A. D. 337, near the close of his life, was baptized into the 
Christian faith. 

The first Sunday legislation was the product of that pa- 
gan conception so fully developed by the Romans, which 
made religion a department of the state. This was diamet- 
rically opposed to the genius of New Testament Christian- 



I05 

ity. It did not find favor in the church until Christianity 
had been deeply corrupted through the influence of gnosti- 
cism and kindred pagan errors. The Emperor Constantine 
issued the first Sunday edict by virtue of his power as pon- 
tifex maximus in all matters of religion, especially in the ap- 
pointment of sacred days. This law was pagan in every 
particular. 

Sunday legislation between the time of Constantine and 
the fall of the empire was a combination of the pagan, 
Christian and Jewish cults. Many other holidays — mostly 
pagan festivals baptized with new names and slightly modi- 
fied — were associated in the same laws with Sunday. 

In 321, Constantine declared it most unworthy of this day 
(Sunday), that it should be taken up with the strifes of the 
courts and the noxious contentions of suitors, and that it 
should rather be filled with good acts. This prohibition of 
law suits included arbitrations. Under the head of good 
acts are mentioned the emancipation of children, the man- 
umission of slaves and the visitation of prisoners, to see that 
they were not cruelly treated. Later laws made further ex- 
ceptions to the above. The judges were ordered by Theo- 
dosius (A. D. 408) to proceed against robbers, and espec- 
ially against the Isaurian pirates at all times, not even e.K- 
cepting Easter or Lent ; the reason given for this, being 
that otherwise the discovery of crimes expected from the 
torture of the robbers may be delayed and the pius hope is 
expressed that the High God will pardon the act being done 
on Sunday, because it tends to the safety of the many. 
There were numerous other e.xceptions for those which ob- 
tained as against the ante-Christian festivals of Rome were 
held still in force. Their object was to prevent a failure of 
justice in civil as well as criminal cases. Theodosius (A. 
D. 386), went further and extended the prohibition to all 
business as well as to litigation. In the same year he forbade 
shows on Sunday, "so that divine worship should not be 



io6 

mixed up with the slaughter of animals." Valentinian Theo- 
dosius and Arcadius (A. D. 392) forbade, on Sunday, 
the contests of the circus. Arcadius and Honorius ad- 
ded theatrical games and horse races, and Honorius and 
Theodosius (A. D. 409) added all pleasures. Leo and 
Anthenius go more into detail, and so make the prohi- 
bition of legal proceedings and of business more sweep- 
ing, and add, that in thus ordering a freedom from labor, 
they do not will tliat the day be given to immodest pleas- 
ures, and mention specially "theatrical representations," 
"games of the circus," and "tearful exhibitions of wild 
beasts." The Roman theatre was very different from the 
modern. Every citizen of Rome had a right to attend it 
without expense. Hence, instead of an audience few in 
numbers and of at least some culture, paying for their seats, 
there were often gathered at a Roman theatre 30,000 people 
of the very lowest and most brutal kind. This rabble — not 
the few — had to be pleased, and as the result taste soon de- 
generated. Purely dramatic representations gave way to 
clowns, boxers, jugglers, &c., and the theatres were soon 
polluted with the grossest indecencies, and the luxury of 
the stage, as the Romans delicately phrased it, drew down 
the loudest indignation of the reformers of a later day. The 
contests of the circus were the struggles to the death, often 
times, of the gladiators. The "tearful spectacles of wild 
beasts," were not simply fights between the beasts them- 
selves, or their wholesale butchery by hired spearmen, but 
also fights between men and savage beasts, and yet further, 
the butchery of helpless men and women, cast bound to the 
animals to be destroyed by them. To the early Christians, 
with the memories of the days of Nero and others still fresh, 
these spectacles were especially hateful. They were con- 
demned by the better class of Romans — the mere specta- 
tors ; how much more then by those whose relatives, friends, 
leaders and fellow religionists had been compelled to act 



lO/ 

and suffer in them. These laws form the basis of the Eng- 
Hsh legislation on this subject, and consequently of ours. 
They can easily be traced in these. Like the laws of their 
day, they deal with the concrete and do not lay down gen- 
eral rules. But the principle underlying them is easily 
seen. They forbid all labor or work on Sunday, except 
such as was essential, or at least highly conducive to the 
welfare, and which, in a broad sense, could be called 
necessary to the state and its citizens. Hence, the farmer 
could sow his seed and plant his vines, equally as the 
state could pursue robbers and pirates, and to prevent the 
loss of a right or the failure of justice, the private suitor 
could take legal proceedings, just as the state could take 
steps to prevent the escape of criminals. They prohibited 
pleasures which were, to a high degree, offensive to the 
taste and moral sense of the community. But they no- 
where prohibited recreation qr inoffensive pleasures or social 
enjoyments unless, indeed, the laws of Honorius and Theo- 
dosius severed from its connexion, be held to do this. 
This law, however, found no place in the Justinian code, 
and consequently did not last very long. 

As it is through England that we have derived our laws 
on this, as on almost all subjects, we turn now to her legis- 
lation. Of the laws before the Norman conquest, the 
earliest is that of Ina or Ine, King of the West Saxons, in 
the year 692 or 693. It is as follows : "If a slave work on 
the Sunday by his lord's command, let him become a free- 
man, and let the lord pay thirty shillings for mulct. But 
if the slave work without his lord's privity, let him forfeit 
his hide (be scourged) or a ransom for it. If a freeman 
work without his lord's command, let him forfeit his free- 
dom, or sixty shillings. Let a priest be liable in double 
jiunishment." To a similar effect were the "dooms," A. D. 
696, of Wihtred, King of the Kentish, and also the laws A. 
D. 878, enacted by the convention between /Edward the 



io8 

Elder and Guthrun the Dane. These latter, however, went 
further and ordained that goods set for sale on Sunday 
should be forfeited. Athclstane likewise, A. D. 925, for- 
bade "buying and selling on the Lord's day." Edgar the 
Peaceful, A, D. 958, forbade, further, "heathenish songs and 
diabolical sports," whatever these were, and also markets 
and county courts. He also fixed the beginning of Sunday 
at three o'clock Saturday afternoon, to last "till Monday 
morning light." This extension of Sunday did not last very 
long. Aethelred (1009) added "hunting bouts" to the pro- 
hibited sports, and renewed the interdict as to "trafficking, 
county courts and worldly works." King Canute — sturdy 
man as he w^as — also put hunting (10 17) under the ban. 
He, however, relaxed the rule as to the courts, and allowed 
them to sit on Sunday "in case of great necessity." The 
constitution of Archbishop Islip, 1359, complains bitterly 
"to our great hearts grief * _* * ^\^^^ ^ detestable, nay 
damnable perverseness has prevailed as to the observance 
of Sunday" — that though it is provided by sanction of law 
and canon "that no markets, negotiations or courts be held 
on that day, and that people go to church, yet, that men 
neglect their churches for unlawful meetings, where revels 
and drunkenness and many other dishonest doings are 
practiced." Following this comes H Richard (1388), for- 
bidding to servants and laborers on Sunday "the playing 
at tennis, foot ball, and other games called coytes, dice, 
casting of the stone, railes and such other importune games," 
but doubtless, with an eye to the good of the state, ordering 
that they should have "bows and arrows, and use the same 
on Sunday." This law was reenacted with additional penal- 
ties by Henry IV (1404). The same year a statute was 
ordained that forbade cordwainers and cobblers from selling 
shoes, &c., on Sunday. This, however, was repealed in 
1523. In 1438, under Henry VI, an act was passed for- 
bading laborers, engaged by the week, to claim wages for 



109 

work done on Sunday. In 1458, under Henry VI, an act 
was passed stating that "considering the abominable injuries 
and offences done to Almighty God and His saints (always 
aiders and singular assistors in our necessities), because of 
fairs and markets upon their high and principal feasts," for- 
bade the holding of markets and fairs on Sunday, except 
the four Sundays in harvest. Edward VI, in his injunc- 
tions, without waiting for a parliament, ordered that Sunday 
"be wholly giv^en to God — in hearing the word of God read 
and taught, in private and public, prayers, * * * visit- 
ing the sick," &c., but allowed men in time of harvest to 
labor on holy and festival days, and save that thing which 
God hath sent, and adds, that "scrupulosity to abstain from 
working upon those days doth grievously offend God." 
The parliament of Edward VI ( 1 5 5 2) confirmed this with but 
little change. All persons were ordered to keep Sundays 
"holy days," and to abstain from lawful bodily labor, but it 
was allowed "to every husbandman, laborer, fisherman, and 
to all and every other person and persons of whatsoever de- 
gree or condition he or she may be, upon the holy days 
aforesaid, in harvest or at any other times in the year, when 
necessity shall require, to labor, ride, fish, or work any kind 
of work at their free will and pleasure." The harvest time 
referred to was then apparently counted from July ist to 
September 24th, and was not restricted to four weeks. 
Under Queen Mary this act was repealed. Queen Eliza- 
beth, who did not suffer her parliament to meddle much with 
religious matters, rc-cnjoincd its observance, but the act was 
not revived by parliament till I James, when the act of 
Queen Mary was formally repealed and this revived. In 
1564, Puritanism, which had been at work on the English 
mind for many years, took definite form and first assumed 
its name. It intensified yet further the severity and strict- 
ness of conduct on Sunday, and apparently, about this time, 
the name of Sabbath was for the first time applied generally 



no 

to the day. Fuller mentions, as an incident which increased 
this feeling, an accident which happened in 1583 at a bull 
baiting on Sunday: "The scaffold fell and killed a few people, 
and injured yet more." This, together with Dr. Bownd's 
book (1583), pushed yet further the tendency of the age to 
gloom and severity. Queen Elizabeth added to Edward's 
injunctions by forbidding inn-holders and all house-keepers, 
&c., "to sell meat or drink in the time of common prayer." 
This stringency, then as now, produced some reaction. 
King James I, in one of his progresses through Lanca- 
shire, noticed the extreme strictness with which the magis- 
trates compelled the observance of Sunday and the conse- 
quent discontent of the people. Therefore, on May 14, 
16 14, he issued for the people of Lancashire "The Book of 
Sports," or "Declaration," that his good people after the end 
of divine service "should not be disturbed, letted or dis- 
couraged from any lawful recreations, such as dancing, 
either of men or women ; archery for men, leaping, vaulting 
or any such harmless recreations, nor from having of May 
games, Whitsunales or Morris dances, and setting up of 
May poles, or other sports therewith used, * * * with- 
al prohibiting all unlawful games to be used on Sundays 
only, as bear baiting, bull baiting, interludes and at all times 
in the meaner sort of people by law prohibited, bowling." 
This king who "never said a foolish thing and never did a 
wise one," well illustrated this unhappy faculty in this de- 
claration. The preamble deserves to be set out in full. "With 
our own ears," says the king, "we have heard the com- 
plaints of our people that they were barred from all lawful 
recreation and exercise upon the Sunday's afternoon, after 
the ending of all divine service, which cannot but produce 
two evils. The one hindering the conversion of man}' whom 
their priests will take occasion thereby to vex, persuading 
them that no honest mirth or recreation is lawful or toler- 
able in our religion, which cannot but breed a great discon- 



1 1 1 

tentment in our people's hearts, especially of such as are 
peradventure upon the point of turning. The other incon- 
venience is this, that this prohibition barreth the meaner 
and commoner sort of people from using such exercises as 
may make their bodies more able for war, when we or our 
successors shall have occasion to use them, and in place 
thereof sets up filthy tipplings and drunkenness, and breeds 
a number of idle and discontented speeches in their ale 
houses. For when the common people have leave to exer- 
cise, if not upon the Sundays and holy days, seeing they 
must apply to their labor and win their living in all work- 
ing days." Instead of extending this privilege to all classes, 
he expressly refused "this benefit and liberty to known re- 
cusants" (so-called Romanists), and to the Puritans. This 
incensed these beyond measure. The calvinistic Arch- 
bishop Abbott forbade the reading of this declaration (as 
required by it), at Croydon Church. The Lord Mayor of 
London stopped the king's carriage when passing through 
London on Sunday. In 1618 King James transmitted 
orders to the clergy of the whole of England to read the 
declaration from the pulpit, but so strong was the oppo- 
sition that he prudently withdrew his command. Puritan- 
ism was still in the ascendant, and the "Book of Sports" 
apparently fell a dead letter. It was not extended by this 
king beyond Lancashire, and the observance of Sunday, 
under the influence of the calvanistic archbishop, remained 
generally as strict as ever. In the first year of Charles I, 
the parliament which he had hastened to call passed an act 
for the strict observance of Sunday, which the Puritans, 
who controlled the parliament, affected to call the Sabbath, 
and which they sanctified by the most melancholy indo- 
lence. With that positive knowledge of God's will which 
has always characterized the Puritans, they assert dogmati- 
cally "that the holy keeping of the Lord's day is a principal 
part of the true service of God," than which service there is 



I 12 

nothing more acceptable to him ; and then enact that "there 
shall be no meetings, assemblies or concourse of people out 
of their own parishes on the Lord's day * * * for any- 
sports and pastimes whatsoever, nor any bear baiting, bull 
baiting, interludes, common plays or other unlawful exer- 
cises and pastimes, be used by any person or persons with- 
in their own parishes." The penalty was a fine of three 
shillings and four pence, and in default of payment the of- 
fender "should sit in the stocks for the space of three hours." 
The broader and more catholic spirit of Laud, then Bishop 
of London, apparently modified the strictness with which 
those laws were enforced. Upon the death of Abbot in 
1633 he succeeded to the archbishopric, and with the 
greater power he thus obtained he secured a greater in- 
dulgence to sports and pastimes. By his influence, as it 
was afterwards charged, tho.ugh apparently not proved, 
Charles re-published his father's Book of Sports on October 
13, 1633, and extended its provisions to the whole realm. 
This was sorely distasteful to the Puritan clergy, and they 
avoided reading the book in the churches as far as they 
could, or, on reading it, would follow it by the fourth com- 
mandment, or by a sermon against it. Many of the clergy- 
men were punished for refusing to obey the injunction. 
Charles was, however, apparently more firm than his father 
and the book was not altogether a dead letter. Later it 
was, by order of the Long Parliament, burnt by the com- 
mon hangman. In the third year of Charles (to go back a 
little) we find another law of parliament (1627) which 
enacts that no carriers with any horse, nor wagonmen with 
any wagon, nor cartmen with any cart, nor wainmen with 
any wains, nor drover with any cattle * * * by them- 
selves or any other, shall * * * travel on Sunday, nor 
shall any butcher, by himself, or through any person "kill 
or sell any victual," on the said day. This brings us to the 
act which, with that of Charles I just cited, is of most in- 



113 

terest and importance to us Americans, i. e. the act of 1676. 
It was of force at the Revolution, and gav^e more or less 
color to the laws of the colonies and of the states which 
succeeded them. For "the better observation and keeping 
holy the Lord's day, commonly called Sunday," it enacts: 

1. That previous laws in force concerning the observa- 
tion of the Lord's day, and reparing to church therein, be 
carefully put in execution. 

2. That all persons shall apply themselves to such obser- 
vation by exercising themselves thereon in the duties of 
piety and true religion, publicly and privately. 

3. That no tradesman, artificer, workman, laborer or other 
person whatsoever "shall do any worldly labor, business or 
work of their ordinary callings," on that day (works of ne- 
cessity and charity only excepted)." Children under four- 
teen years of age were excepted from the operation of this 
section. 

4. That no person shall publicly cry, show forth or ex- 
pose for sale, any wares, merchandise, fruit, herbs, goods or 
chattels whatsoever, upon pain of forfeiture of the goods. 

5. That no drover, horse courser, wagoner, butcher, hig- 
gler, or their servants, shall travel or come to his or their 
inn or lodging. 

6. That no person shall "usp , employ or travel * * * 
with any boat, wherry, lighter, or barge, except on some 
extraordinary occasion, to be allowed by some magistrate. 

7. If any person travelling on Sunday shall be robbed, 
the Hundred was relieved from the responsibility therefor, 
but must still make pursuit of the robber. 

8. It made void the services of all writs and other legal 
process on Sunday, except in cases of treason, felony and 
breach of the peace. 

9. That this act should not apply to the prohibiting of 
dressing of meats in families, or dressing or selling of meats 
in inns, cook-shops, or victualing houses, for such as other- 



114 

wise cannot be provided, "nor to the crying and selling of 
milk before nine in the morning and after four in the after- 
noon." 

This ends my review of the English statutes on this sub- 
ject. The later acts do not concern this country. Doubt- 
less I have omitted some that I should have noticed. Still 
the above gives, I hope, the most material regulations for 
the observance of Sunday at that time. First, ordinary 
work is forbidden. Then follows the selling of goods. Then 
the joyous and rollicking festivities of fairs and markets. 
Then comes games and sports, and thus gradually Sunday 
is filled with unhappy associations to many. That bull 
baiting, bear baiting and such like cruel sports should have 
been interdicted on the day of rest — the day of peace — 
seems natural to us, but it will be difficult to assign any 
religious reason for the prohibition of quoits, foot-ball, &c., 
while the use of bows and arrows was encouraged. The 
reason implied in the Book of Sports was doubtless the 
true one. The English archer made the English infantry 
of that day peculiarly formidable. The peasants supplied 
the archers. Cut off from all other amusements on their 
day of leisure, they were almost compelled to become pro- 
ficient in archery, and to form a corps of skilled reserves, 
from which the army could always be recruited. These 
laws of England, howev^er, did not suit many of the Puri- 
tans of that day. They were too moderate for the followers 
of Dr. Bownd, and these preferred to exchange their old 
homes for a wild and unknown land, rather than not to 
have their own laws, and to follow religion according to 
their own views. These men were too much in earnest in 
their convictions to brook any half way observance of Sun- 
day, and their influence in this matter is felt among us yet. 

We will now turn our attention to the laws of our own 
state. When the frame of government for Pennsylvania was 
adopted by Penn, 25th April, 1682, and certain laws were 



115 

agreed upon by the Governor and freemen of the province, 
on the 5th May, 1682, it was enacted, ititer alia, "That ac- 
•cording to the good example of the primitive Christians, 
and for the ease of creation, every first day of the week, 
called the Lord's day, people shall abstain from the com- 
mon daily labor, that they may the better dispose them- 
selves to worship God according to their understandings." 
In the "Great Law" of the province of Pennsylvania and 
territories thereto belonging, passed at an assembly held at 
"Chester, alias Upland," December 7, 1682, it was again 
enacted, "To the end that looseness, irreligion and atheism, 
play not creep in under pretense of conscience in this 
province, that according to the example of the primitive 
Christians, and for the ease of creation, every first day of 
the week, called the Lord's day, people shall abstain from 
their usual and common toil and labor. That whether 
masters, parents, children or servants, they may the better 
dispose themselves to read the scriptures of truth at home 
or frequent such meetings of religious worship abroad as 
may best suit their respective persuasions." This was, with 
some other laws enacted at the same time, declared "a 
fundamental law," and it was also declared that the same 
"should not be altered, diminished or repealed in whole or 
in part without the consent of the Governor, his heirs and 
assigns and six parts of seven of the freemen of the province 
or territories thereof in Provincial Council and Assembly 
met." This and all other laws previously in force were, 
from their dislike to William Penn, it is said, abrogated by 
William and Mary, King and Queen of England, in 1693, 
but this was reenactcd by the new provincial authorities 
the same year and continued in force till the year 1700, 
when it was again enacted, after the government of the 
province, which had fallen into great confusion and disorder 
during the absence of Penn in England, was again reorgan- 
ized. (See Bioren's Laws, Vol. I, p. i.) This continued 



ii6 

until a new act was passed by the legislature in 1705, which 
appears to have superseded all previous legislation on this 
subject, and the fourth, fifth and sixth sections of which are 
still in force. The first section of this act, which was super- 
seded by the act of 25th April, 1786, and that act by the 
act of 1794, was as follows : 

"An act to restrain people from labor on the first day of 
the week, to the end that all people in this province may, 
with greater freedom, devote themselves to religious and 
pious exercises. Be it enacted by John Evans, Esq., by the 
Queen's Approbation Lieutenant Governor, under William 
Penn, Esq., Absolute Proprietary Governor in Chief of the 
province of Pennsylvania and territories, by and with the 
advice and consent of the freemen of said province in Gen- 
eral Assembly met. That according to the example of the 
primitive Christians, and for the ease of creation, every first 
day of the week, commonly called Sunday, all the people 
shall abstain from toil and labor, that whether masters, 
parents, children, servants or others, they may the better 
dispose themselves to read and hear the holy scriptures of 
truth at home and frequent sucli meetings of religious wor- 
ship abroad as may best suit their respective persuasions, 
and that no tradesman, artificer, workman, laborer or any 
other person whatsoever, shall do or exercise any worldly 
business or work of their ordinary callings on the first day 
of the week, or any part thereof (works of necessity and 
charity only excepted), upon pain that every person so of- 
fending shall, for every offense, forfeit the sum of twenty 
shillings : Provided always. That nothing in this act con- 
tained shall extend to prohibit the dressing of victuals in 
flimilies, cook-shops and victualling houses." In 1794 an 
act which is now the law of the Commonwealth was passed, 
superseding and repealing all previous laws, in the terms 
following : 



117 

"An Act for the prevention of vice, immorality and of 
unlawful gaming, and to restrain disorderly sports and dis- 
sipation." 

"Section i. If any person shall do or perform any world- 
ly employment or business whatever, on the Lord's day, 
commonly called Sunday (w^orks of charity and necessity 
only excepted), or shall use or practice any unlawful game, 
shooting, sport or diversion whatever, on the same day, 
and be convicted thereof, every such person so offending 
shall forfeit and pay four dollars, to be levied by distress ; 
or in case he or she shall refuse or neglect to pay said sum, 
or goods or chattels cannot be found, whereof to levy the 
same by distress, he or she shall suffer six days' imprison- 
ment in the house of correction of the proper county : Pro- 
vided, That nothing herein contained shall be construed to 
prohibit the dressing of victuals in private families, bake- 
houses, inns or other houses of entertainment for the use 
of sojourners, travellers or strangers, or to hinder watermen 
from landing their passengers, or ferrymen from carrying 
over the water travellers, or persons moving with their fam- 
ilies on the Lord's day, commonly called Sunday, nor to 
the delivery of milk, or the necessaries of life, before nine 
o'clock in the forenoon, nor after five o'clock in the after- 
noon of the same day." 

Judge Duncan, in the case of Updegraph v. The Com- 
monwealth, II S. &. R. 394, states that "Christianity, gen- 
eral Christianity, is and always has been a part of the com- 
mon law of Pennsylvania ; Christianity without the spiritual 
artillery of European countries — for this Christianity was 
one of the considerations of the royal charter and the very 
basis of its great founder, William Penn — not Christianity 
with an established church, and tithes, and spiritual courts ; 
not Christianity founded on any particular religious tenets, 
but Christianity with liberty of conscience to all men. Wil- 
liam Penn and Lord Baltimore were the first legislators," 
y 



ii8 

the first a Friend, and the latter a Roman CathoHc, "who 
passed laws in favor of liberty of conscience, for before that 
period the principles of liberty of conscience appeared in 
the laws of no people, the axiom of no government, the in- 
stitutes of no society, and scarcely in the temper of any man. 
Even the reformers were as furious against contumacious 
errors as they were loud in asserting the liberty of conscience. 
And to the wilds of America, peopled by a stock cut off by 
persecution from a Christian society, does Christianity owe 
true freedom of religious opinion and religious worship." 
The case was an indictment for blasphemy founded on an 
Act of Assembly passed in 1700, which enacts that "whoso- 
ever shall wilfully, prcmeditatcdly and despitefully blas- 
pheme and speak loosely and profanely of Almighty God, 
Christ Jesus, the Holy Spirit, or the Scriptures of Truth, 
and is legally convicted thereof, shall forfeit and pay the 
sum of ten pounds." It was decided in September, 1824, 
and the judges of the Supreme Court were Tilghman, Chief 
Justice, and Gibson and Duncan justices. 

The Supreme Court in 1853 was composed of Black, 
Chief Justice, and Lewis, Lowrie, Woodward and Knox, 
justices. In the court of that year was the case of Johnson 
V. The Commonwealth, 10 Harris, 102. It was there held 
that "driving an omnibus as a public conveyance daily, and 
every day, is worldly employment, and not a work of charity 
or necessity within the meaning of the Act of 1794, and 
therefore not lawful on Sunday. Chief Justice Black and 
Justice Lewis dissented. Judge Woodward, in delivering 
the judgment of the court, said: "These statutes were not 
designed to compel men to go to church or to worship God 
in any manner inconsistent with personal preferences, but 
to compel a cessation of those employments which are cal- 
culated to interfere with the rights of those who choose to 
assemble for public worship. The day was set apart for a 
purpose and the penal enactments guard it, but the)- lea\'e 



119 

every man free to use it for that purpose or not. If he 
wish to use it for the purpose designed, the law protects 
him from the annoyance of others — if he do not, it restrains 
him from annoying those who do so use it. Thus the law, 
without oppressing anybody, becomes auxiliary to the rights 
of conscience. And there are other rights intimately as- 
sociated with the rights of conscience which are worth pre- 
serving. The right to rear a family with a becoming re- 
gard to the institutions of Christianity, and without compell- 
ing them to witness, hourly, infractions of one of its funda- 
mental laws ; the right to enjoy the peace and good order 
of society and the increased securities of life and property 
which result from a decent observance of Sunday ; the right 
of the poor to rest from labor without diminution of wages 
or loss of employment ; the right of beasts of burthen to re- 
pose one-seventh of their time from their unrequited toil ; 
these are real and substantial interests which the legislature 
sought to secure by this enactment, and when" has legisla- 
tion arrived at higher objects ?" The Supreme Court in 
1859 '^^'^^ composed of Lowrie, Chief Justice, and Wood- 
ward, Thompson, Strong and Read, justices. In the court 
of that year was the case of The Commonwealth z>. Nesbit, 
10 Casey, 398. It was there held that "it is not a violation 
of the Act of April 22, 1794, for a hired domestic servant 
to drive his employer's family to church on the Lord's day 
in the employer's private conveyance. Chief Justice Lowrie, 
in delivering the opinion of the court, said : "Some worldly 
employments are expressly allowed, such as removing with 
one's family, delivery of milk and necessaries of life, and 
the business of ferrymen and innkeepers; and of course, 
these may be performed by a principal or by his servants, 
and by all the ordinary means adopted for these purposes, 
and which are not themselves forbidden. And all worldly 
employments arc allowed which, in their nature, consists 
of acts of nccessit}' or charit)', or if the)' become so for the 



I20 

time beiiif^ by reason of famine, flood, fire, pestilence, or 
other disaster. In such cases necessity and charity de- 
mands the work, and with it all the ordinary means of 
doing it. The whole purpose of some employments is to 
do works of necessity or charity. The business of a phy- 
sician cannot be stopped on Sunday because it is a work of 
necessity. He must travel in performing it, and he is there- 
fore entitled to use all the ordinary means of such travel, 
and this includes, of course, the labor of his servants in at- 
tending to his horse and carriage, and in driving if he thinks 
it needful. The law does not inquire whether he might 
have done such work himself It is not the driving, but 
the principal work that is needful ; the driving follows mere- 
ly as ordinary means. The business of the apothecary is 
necessary, so far as it is connected with human sickness, 
and a man may attend to it by his servants, though that 
means may not be necessary. Hospitals in great variety 
are necessary, and no one doubts that all the domestic at- 
tendants of these institutions may lawfully pursue their 
usual avocations therein, because they are the ordinary 
means of a legitimate purpose. That people may enjoy 
religious worship and instruction, the functions of the 
preacher, the religious teacher, the sexton, the organist 
and the singers are not forbidden, even though these per- 
sons engage in these employments as a means of livelihood. 
Hence, the ordinary means of attending public worship 
are not forbidden when used purely for this purpose. In 
this \iew of the case it is the rightncss and the exigencies of 
the purpose that justify the ordinar}' means of effectuating 
it. Conducting and attending religious worship are among 
the x'ery purposes for which the law protects the day, and 
therefore all the means which common usage shows to be 
reasonably necessary for these purposes are not forbidden. 
But no one ought to expect sharp definitions of legal duty 
on such a subject. Modes of lix'ing, of business, of travel 



121 

and other human customs are so continually changing that 
definitions involving them can never be universally, but 
only generally, adequate. All that we can expect is truth 
and accuracy to a general intent. Even law, as a definition 
of human duty, is subject to this defect. Yet, with very 
few exceptions, it is true that no one who sincerely respects 
the customs of society and strives to maintain them in his 
social life, can fail to understand the law in all its main 
features, and to live in conformity with it. It is only in 
peculiar and exceptional cases that any difficulties can arise, 
and even these are made easy of solution by a sincere dis- 
position to conform to the order of society. Necessity it- 
self is totally incapable of any sharp definition. What is a 
mere luxury or perhaps entirely useless or burdensome to 
a savage, may be a matter of necessity to a civilized man. 
What may be a mere luxury or pleasure to a poor man, 
may be a necessity when he has grown rich. Necessity, 
therefore, can itself be only approximately defined. The law 
regards that as necessary which the common sense of the 
country, in its ordinary modes of doing its business, regards 
as necessary. . By this test the business of keeping a livery 
stable[for the care of people's horses is a necessary employ- 
ment in large towns, and of course this requires some work 
and attention on Sundays, and this may be performed to 
the extent of the necessity by the ordinary means be- 
longing to the business. By this test, also, iron and glass 
are necessaries of life and they cannot be obtained without 
some work being done on Sundays, if the business is to be 
performed according to the ordinary skill and science of 
the country. The law never inquires whether iron and 
glass generally, or in such large quantities, are really nec- 
essary in the strictest sense of the wortl, or whether it is 
not possible to improve the art so that Sunday may not 
need to be violated. This is not the province of law but of 
individual enterprise and science. Law, therefore, does not 



122 

condemn those employments which society regards as nec- 
essary, e\cn when they encroach on the Sabbath, if, accord- 
ing to the ordinary skill of the business, it is necessary to 
do so. And then the business being recognized as neces- 
sary, it may be performed by means of the services of others 
and by all the ordinary means of the business, so far as it 
is necessary. But let us consider the statutory definition 
of what is forbidden. It is 'any worldly employment or 
business whatsoever.' What does this word 'worldly' 
mean ? Its correlatives help us to its meaning. Very evi- 
dentl)' worldly is contrasted with religions, and the worldly 
employments are prohibited for the sake of the religious 
ones. Of course, therefore, no religious employments are 
forbidden. Hence, funerals, as religious rites, are allowed 
on Sunday, and all the functions of undertakers, grave dig- 
gers, hearse and carriage drivers, and others, though such 
persons use such employments as a means of livelihood. 
Hence, also, while purely civil contracts are forbidden on 
Sunday, marriage is not so, because it is not purely civil, 
but also a religious contract. But the words domestic, 
household, family, are also correlatives of the word worldly. 
If they are so in this law, then worldly employments being 
*alonc forbidden, of course these contraries are not. An 
obstacle to this view is, that cooking victuals in families is 
excepted as though the general prohibition of worldly em- 
ployments included it. Yet this exception is possibly ex- 
pressed by way of precaution to prevent a supposed but 
perhaps misinterpreted Jewish law from being misapplied 
to us as though repeated in our law. Exodus, i6: 23 and 
35 : 3. Or possibly the purpose of the proviso was to save 
from the prohibition certain worldly employments, such as 
cooking victuals in bake houses, boarding houses and inns, 
and delivery of milk, and cooking in families was also 
named merely to prevent a prohibiiion of it from being im- 
plied from the proviso, though not included in the general 



123 

prohibition. If this is a redundancy it is not the only one. 
Cooking victuals in bakehouses and inns is specially al- 
lowed, and yet it is understood to be included under the 
term 'works of necessity.' And if 'worldly employment' 
is to be taken in its largest sense it includes hunting, shoot- 
ing and sporting, and yet these are specially forbidden. 
We think that these terms were not intended to include 
such household or family work as pertains directly to the 
proper duties, necessities and comforts of the day, and this 
work may be done by any member of the family, including 
domestics. The most convincing proof that this is the true 
interpetation of the law is, that it has always been so under- 
stood. It has never been regarded as applying to the 
proper internal economy of the family. It does not except 
the ordinary employments of making fires and beds, clean- 
ing up chambers and fire places, washing dishes, feeding 
cattle and harnessing horses for going to church, because 
these were never regarded as the worldly business of the 
family, and therefore not forbidden to the head of the 
family or to the domestics. It is probable, however, 
that the most of these occupations may have been regarded 
as works of necessity, or as means of performing such work. 
These domestic employments, being necessary for every day 
are not worldly employments in the sense of the law, may 
be exercised in the ordinary modes and with the ordinary 
freedom of the family without any violation of the law." 

The Supreme Court in 1867 w^as composed of Woodward, 
Chief Justice, and Thompson, Strong, Read and Agnew, 
justices. In the court of that year was the case of Spar- 
hawk V. Union Passenger Railway Company, 54 Pennsyl- 
vania State Reports, 401, where it was held that "running 
passenger cars on Sunday is a violation of the Act of 1794, 
and is within its penalties," but that "a party cannot vindi- 
cate others' rights by process in his own name nor employ 
ci\'il process to punish wrongs to tlie public." Judge 



124 

Thompson delivered the opinion of the court which was 
concurred in by the Chief Justice, and Read, justice. Judge 
Strong and Agnew dissented. Judge Read, one of the most 
scholarly men of his day, said in his concurring opinion : 

"Christianity is a part of the laws of England, says Black- 
stone, and Lord Chief Baron Kelly, in the late case of 
Cowen V. Milbourn, Law Rep. 2 Ex. 234, uses similar lan- 
guage : 'There is abundant authority for saying that Christ- 
ianity is part and parcel of the law of the land.' It is clear, 
therefore, that, as our common law is derived from Eng- 
land, we must look to that country for information as to 
what our common law on this subject was and is. Eng- 
land, at least for the last eight hundred years, has always 
had an established church, with the single exception of the 
time of the Commonwealth. From William the Conqueror 
to Henry the VIII it was the Roman Catholic, and from 
his death to the present time, with the exception of the 
reign of Queen Mary, it has been the Church of England. 
Of course this part of the common law has been affected 
and controlled and formed by the practices and usages of 
the church, established by law, and not by those of any 
other sect or denomination of Christians. England has an 
established church, and Scotland has also another, and 
neither have any control over the other. Our common 
law, however, is derived from England, and therefore it is 
only to England we are to look for it, and not to any other 
country. The first day of the week, the Lord's day, com- 
monly called Sunday, is a day for worship and rest as regu- 
lated by the civil authority. It is dies non jjiridicus in Eng- 
land, but in other respects it is the subject of positive regu- 
lation by the legislative authority. I am aware that some 
religious persons of some religious sects think the sanctity 
of Sunday, as a day of entire rest, is prescribed to all nations, 
and particularly to all Christians, by the fourth command- 
ment in the Decalogue, but an attentive perusal of the 20th, 



125 

3 1st and 35th chapters of Exodus, and of the 5th chapter 
of Deuteronomy, will show that this commandment was 
specially limited to the Jewish nation alone. The words 
spoken were, 'I am the Lord thy God, which have brought 
thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage,' 
and the verses succeeding the Decalogue, and the 2 ist chap- 
ter which commences, 'Now these are the judgments which 
thou shalt set before them,' show clearly" that the command- 
ments and judgments were addressed to the Israelites alone, 
and so in the 24th chapter, where the people take the cov- 
enant and said, 'all that the Lord hath said, will we do, and 
be obedient.' So in the 12th to the 17th verses of the 31st 
chapter, 'speak thou also unto the children of Israel, say- 
ing, verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep, for it is a sign be- 
tween me and you throughout your generations.' 'Every 
one that defileth it shall surely be put to death ; for whoso- 
ever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from 
among his people.' 'Wherefore, the children of Israel shall 
keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their 
generations for a perpetual covenant.' 'It is a sign between 
me and the children of Israel forever.' In the 5th chapter 
of Deuteronomy, 'Moses called all Israel and said unto 
them, hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I 
speak in your ears this day, that ye may learn them, and 
keep, and do them. The Lord our God made a covenant 
with us in Horeb. The Lord made not this covenant 
with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us 
here alive this day.' Then follows the Decalogue, but the 
reason assigned for the fourth commandment is in the 15th 
verse in these words, 'And remember that thou wast a ser- 
vant in the land of P^gypt, and that the Lord thy God 
brought thee out thence through a mighty hand, and by a 
stretched-out arm : therefore the Lord thy God commanded 
thee to keep the Sabbath day.' In the 22d verse Moses 
says, 'These words (the ten commandments) the Lord spake 



126 

unto all )-our assembly in the mount, out of the midst of 
the fire, of the cloud and of the thick darkness, with a ^reat 
voice ; and he added no more.' This recapitulation of 
Scripture makes it clear tliat the fourth commandment, 
which is a positive statute imposed upon the Israelites 
alone, as a people separated from all other nations by the 
Almighty for special and wise purposes, was not intended 
either for the Gentries or for those Hving under a later dis- 
pensation. Like circumcision, it was a sign between Him 
and them only. It was a part of the ceremonial law, like 
sacrifices, and not hinding at an}- time on any nation except 
the Jews. It is evident that no great nation of modern 
times, living under the Christian dispensation, could sub- 
mit to an observance of a day of entire rest under the penalty 
of death for any breach of it ; for the command of the Al- 
mighty inflicted this penalty on the offender. The whole 
Jewish constitution was framed for a small and partially 
barbarous nation, whose tendency was to idolatry, and upon 
whom were imposed burdens which could only be borne 
by those who considered tfiemselves as specially selected 
by the Godhead. It was not a nation who could spread 
their doctrines or convert other nations, and their mission 
ceased with the birth of our Saviour. The Old Testament 
contains moral revealed law, ceremonial and judicial laws — 
the two last being either typical, or intended especially or 
only for the Jewish people under the old dispensation, were 
terminated by fulfillment or abrogation on the coming of 
Christ, and the completion of the Christian dispensation. 
This was the view of the Apostle Paul, when he says in his 
Epistle to the Colossians, 'Blotting out the handwriting of 
ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, 
and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross ; and 
having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show 
of them openly, triumphing over them in it. Let no man 
therefore judge }'Ou in meat, or in drink, or in respect of 



12/ 

an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days ; 
which are a shadow of things to come : but the body is of 
Christ.' Col. ii : 14, 15. So in his Epistle to the Gala- 
tions : 'But now, after that ye have known God, or rather 
are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beg- 
garly elements, whercunto }-e desire again to be in bond- 
age? Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. 
I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labor in 
vain.' Gal. iv : 9, 10. 'Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty 
wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled 
again with the yoke of bondage.' Gal. v: i. So in his 
Epistle to the Romans, 14th chap., 5th verse, 'One man 
esteemeth one day above another; another estcemeth every 
day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own 
mind.' 'He that regardeth the day regardeth it unto the 
Lord ; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he 
doth not regard it ;' and in the preceding chapter, 9th verse, 
the Apostle says : 'For this, thou shalt not commit adult- 
ery ; thou shalt not kill ; thou shalt not steal ; thou shalt 
not bear false witness ; thou shalt not covet ; and if there 
be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in 
this saying, namely, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy- 
self.' It is evident from these texts that the Apostle did 
not regard the fourth commandment as a part of the moral 
revealed law, but as a ceremonial or judicial law which was 
terminated by the coming of our Saviour and the comple- 
tion of the Christian dispensation. It was part and parcel 
of the old dispensation fitted only for a small and peculiar 
nation, and necessarily perished with it, the whole being 
supplied by the Christian dispensation embracing in its out- 
stretched arms, not a single people, but all the nations of 
the earth, and announcing principles of the purest morality 
exemplified in the life and .teachings of the divine author of 
our religion. The fourth commandment was a positive 
statute, fixing the seventh day of the week as a day of rest. 



128 

and is the day obscn'ed by the Jews ; and of course the 
first day of the week cannot be the Sabbath day of the De- 
calogue. The Sunday of the Christian world is therefore 
not the Jewish Sabbath of the fourth commandment, and 
such was the declared opinion of Luther, Calvin, and all 
the early reformers. Luther said : 'As for the Sabbath or 
Sunday there is no necessity for its observance ; and if we do 
so the reason ought to be not because Moses commanded 
it, but because nature likewise teaches us to give from time 
to time a day of rest, in order that man and beast may re- 
cruit their strength, and that we may go and hear the word 
preached.' 'The Gospel regardeth neither Sabbath nor 
holidays, because they endured but for a time and were 
ordained for the sake of preaching, to the end God's word 
might be tended and taught' 'Keep the Sabbath holy for 
its use both to body and soul ; but if anywhere the day is 
made holy for the mere day's sake — if anywhere one sets 
up its observance upon a Jewish foundation, then I order 
you to work on it, to ride on it, to dance on it, to feast on 
it, to do anything that shall remove this encroachment on 
the Christian spirit and liberty.' Calvin says in his exposi- 
tion of the fourth commandment, 'The Fathers frequently 
called it a shadoiuy coviuiandiiicnt, because it contains the 
external observance of the day, which was abolished with 
the rest of the figures at the advent of Christ.' 'l^ut all 
that it (the Sabbath) contained of a ceremonial nature was 
without doubt abolished by the advent of the Lord Christ.' 
'Though the Sabbath is abrogated, yet still it is customary 
among us to assemble on stated days for hearing the word, 
for breaking the mystical bread, and for public prayers, and 
also to allow servants and laborers remission from their 
labor.' 'They complain that Christians are tinctured with 
Judaism, because they retain any observance of days. But 
I reply, the Lord's day is not observed by us upon the 
principle of Judaism ; because, in this respect, the difference 



129 

between us and the Jews is very great, for wc celebrate it, 
not with scrupulous rigor as a ceremony which we conceive 
to be a figure of some spiritual mystery, but only use it as 
a remedy necessary to the preservation of order in the 
Church.' 'They' (Luther and Calvin), says Rev. Dr. Rice, 
'have observed the form rather as a matter of necessity or 
expediency, than as divinely commanded.' Calvin encour- 
aged the burghers of Geneva by his own presence and ex- 
ample at their public recreations, as bowling and shooting, 
upon the Lord's day after their devotions at church were 
ended. Barclay, in his Apology, says : 'We not seeing any 
ground in Scripture for it, cannot be so superstitious as to 
believe that either the Jewish Sabbath now continues, or 
that the first day of the week is the antitype thereof, or the 
true Christian Sabbath ; which, with Calvin, we believe to 
have a more spiritual sense ; and therefore, we know no 
moral obligation by the fourth command or elsewhere, to 
keep the first day of the week more than any other, or any 
holiness in it. But, ist, forasmuch as it is necessary that 
there be sometime set apart for the servants to meet together to 
wait upon God, and that 2dly, it is fit at sometimes they be 
freed from their outward affairs, and that 3dly, reason and 
equity doth allow that servants and beasts have some time 
allowed them to be eased from their constant labor, and that 
4thly, it appears that the Apostles and primitive Christ- 
ians did use the first day of the week for these purposes, we 
find ourselves sufficiently mo\-ed for these causes to do so 
also, without superstitiously straining the Scripture for 
another reason, which is, that is not to be there found, 
many Protestants — yea, Calvin himself upon the fourth 
command hath abundantly evinced.' Melancthon, Beza, 
Bucer, Zuinglius, Cranmer, Milton and Knox were of the 
same opinion, and Jeremy Taylor says : 'The effect of which 
consideration is this : that the Lord's day did not succeed 
in the place of the Sabbath ; but the Sabbath was wholly 



I30 

abrogated and the Lord's day was merely of ecclesiastical 
institution.' Paley, Arnold of Rugby, Archbishop Whate- 
ly and our great lawgiver hold the same language. Penn 
says : 'To call any day of the week a Christian Sabbath is 
not CJiristian but Jeivisli ; give us one Scripture for it ; I 
will give two against it.' Bishop White, the chaplain to 
congress during the revolution, and the senior bishop of the 
Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, 
in his lectures on the Catechism, p. 64, speaking of the 
fourth commandment, says : 'In regard to its duration it 
appears evident that as far as regarded the authority of the 
injunction to the Israelites, and unless some new obligation 
can be shown the institution ceased even in relation to Jew- 
ish converts to Christianity at the destruction of their reli- 
gious polity ; and that it never extended to the Gentile 
Christians. Of this there shall be given but one proof; it 
being decisive to the point. It is in the second chapter of 
the Papistic to the Colossians : 'Let no man, therefore, judge 
you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of 
the new moon, or of the Sabbath days.' Here the Sabbath 
is considered as falling with the whole body of the ritual 
law of Moses, and this may show the reason on which our 
church avoids the calling of her day of public worship — 
'Tile Sabbath.' It is never so called in the New Testa- 
ment.' And in the primitive church the term 'Sabbatizing' 
carried with it the reproach of a leaning to the abrogated 
observances of the law.' The late Rev. Dr. James \V. Alex- 
ander, a very distinguished divine of the Presbyterian 
Church, writing from New York, says: 'The question of 
riding in our street cars on Sunday is agitating our com- 
munity. I have not been able to decide it. The poor go 
IN CARS, 'I'liK RICH IN COACHES. Tlic uumbcr of horses and 
men is less than if there were no cars. It is a query whether 
as many cars as would be demanded by those (among half 
a million), who haxc lawful occasion to journc)'. If so, the 



131 

whole question would be reduced to one of individual vo- 
cation to this amount of locomotion. The whole matter of 
the Christian Sabbath is a little perplexed to my mind. ist. 
All that our Lord says on it is prima facie on the side of 
relaxation. 2d. The Apostles who enforce, and, as it were, 
reenact every other commandment of the ten, never advert 
to this. 3d. Even to Gentile converts they lay no stress 
on this, which might be expected to come first among ex- 
ternals. 4th. According to the letter, Paul teaches the Col- 
ossians (xi : 16), not to be scrupulous about Sabbaths. I 
am not, therefore, surprised, Calvin had doubts on the sub- 
ject. I must wait for more light.' To the young man 
whom he directed to keep the commandments, if he would 
enter into eternal life, and who asked him, 'Which?' 'Jesus 
said, thou shalt do no murder ; thou shalt not commit 
adultery ; thou shalt not steal ; thou shalt not bear false 
witness ; honor thy father and thy mother, and thou shalt 
love thy neighbor as thyself,' is a strong corroboration of 
the second reason above given by Dr. Alexander. The 
Sabbath of the fourth commandment being abrogated and 
abolished, our Saviour did not command the observance of 
Sunday, nor is it alleged that there is any express direction 
to observe it by any of the Apostles to be found in the New 
Testament. That Sunday {dies so/is) grew up by usage 
among the primitive Christians as a stated day of prayer, 
and was recognized as such in the time of Justin Martyr, is 
certain. But it was clearly not a Sabbath in the Jewish 
sense, for the division into weeks was not recognized in the 
Roman world until the third and fourth centuries, and all 
Christians who were slaves could not have obliged their 
heathen masters to give them one day in seven, for an entire 
rest from all labor. So, from Pliny's letter to the P>mperor 
Trajan, it would appear, the primitive Christians met before 
it was light for worship and prayer, which was obviously 
adopted that it might not interrupt the labors or occupa- 



132 

tions of the day, a lar<je portion of these early disciples be- 
longing to the servile and laboring classes. When Christ- 
ianity became the religion of the emperor, and of course of 
the state, we find the division into weeks used, and the days 
called by the planetary names, as dies solis (day of the sun), 
dies lima' (day of the moon), &c. The act for keeping holi- 
days and fast days of the 5th and 6th Edward the 6th, chap. 
3 (1552), is framed upon the same principle as the edict of 
Constantine. and speaking of the days appointed for the 
worship of God, which are called Holy Days, says this, 
'not for the matter and nature, either of the time or day ;' 
'for so all days and times considered are God's creatures, 
and all of like holiness. Neither is it to be thought that 
there is any certain time or definite number of days pre- 
scribed in holy scripture, but that the appointment, both of 
the time and also the number of days is left by the authority 
of God's word to the liberty of Christ's Church, to be de- 
termined and assigned; orderly in every country, by the dis- 
cretion of the rulers aiid ministers thereof, as they shall 
judge most expedient to the true setting forth of God's 
glory and the edification of their people.' Then follow the 
holy days to be kept, 'all Sundays in the year.' These are 
festivals. In Swann v. Broome, 3 Burr. 1 595, it was decided 
that Sunday was dies non jiiridiciis, and Lord Mansfield 
says: 'Anciently the courts of justice did sit on Sunday. 
The fact of this, and the reasons of it, appear in Sir Henry 
Spcllman's original of the terms.' It appears, by what he 
says, that the ancient Christians practised this. In his chap- 
ter of law days among the first Christians, using all days 
alike, he says, 'the Christians at first used all days alike for 
hearing of causes, not sparing (as it seemeth) the Sunday 
itself.' They had two reasons for it. One was in opposi- 
tion to the heathens, who were superstitious about the ob- 
servation of da)-s and times, conceiving some to be ominous 
and unluck)', and others to be luck}'; and therefore the 



133 

Christians laid aside all observance of da}'s ; a second reason 
they also had, which was by keeping their own courts 
akvays open, to prevent Christian suitors from resorting to 
the heathen courts. In Mackalley's Case, 9 Co., it was 
'Resolved, That no judicial act ought to be done on that 
day ; but ministerial acts may be lawfully executed on the 
Sunday.' These cases are distinctly affirmed in Huide- 
koper V. Cotton, 3 Watts, 59; Kepner v. Keefer, 6 Id. 231 ; 
Fox V. Mensch, 3 W. & S. 444. It is clear, therefore, that 
in England, Sunday, or the Lord's day, was considered an 
ecclesiastical institution, and the only common law restraint 
imposed upon it, as an observance of the day, was that no 
judicial proceedings should be had on Sunday, and that 
courts should not sit on that day. In early times Parlia- 
ment sat on Sunday ; for in the reign of Edward the First, 
in 1278 and 1305, three statutes were made on Sunday, and 
Froude, in his first vol. of the History of Henry the Eighth, 
p. 67, speaking of the English archery, says : 'Every ham- 
let had its pair of butts, and on Sundays and holidays all 
able bodied men were required to appear in the field, to 
employ their leisure hours 'as valyant Englishmen ought 
to do,' utterly leaving the play at the bowls, quoits, dice, 
kails and other unthrifty games. On the same days the 
tilt-yard, at the hall or castle, was thrown open, and the 
young men of rank amused themselves with similar exer- 
cises.' By the Act of 3 and 4 William, 4 ch. 3 1 , reciting that 
the profanation of the Lord's day is greatly increased by 
certain meetings, which are usually or occasionally held on 
that day, it enacts that all such meetings of corporations, 
vestries and public companies, and every other meeting of 
a public and secular nature required to be held on any 
Lord's day, shall be held on the preceding Saturday or suc- 
ceeding Monday. It is therefore evident that the Lord's 
day was considered like any other day, to be subject to re- 
gulation by the civil authority alone, who could, if it were 
10 



134 

deemed expedient and necessary, authorize the courts to 
sit on Sunday, notwithstanding the common hiw prohibi- 
tion. By the Act of the 29 Charles 2, ch. 7, for the better 
observance of the Lord's day, commonly called Sunday, no 
tradesman, artificer, workman, laborer or other person what- 
soever, shall do or exercise any worldly labor or work of 
their ordinary callings, upon the Lord's day or any part 
thereof (works of necessity and charity only excepted), 
'under a penalty of five shillings.' Under this statute, it 
has been held, a sale of a horse was not void, such sale not 
being made in the ordinary calling of the plaintiff or his 
agent, so a contract of hiring made on a Sunday between a 
farmer and a laborer for a year is valid, and the enlistment 
of a soldier by a recruiting officer is not within the statute. 
The words 'other person or persons' do not include the 
owner or driver of a stage coach, and therefore, their con- 
tracts to carry passengers on a Sunday are binding ; so an 
attorney, entering into an agreement on Sunday for the set- 
tlement of his client's affairs, and thereby rendering himself 
personally liable, is not thereby exercising his usual calling; 
and the penalty can only be incurred once on the same day. 
So a farmer engaged in haymaking on Sunday is not with- 
in the statute ; nor are railways. 'The statutes clearly do 
not apply to railway companies, so as to render it illegal 
for them to run trains for the convc)'ance of goods or pas- 
sengers on a Sunday.' Chitty on Carriers, 1 17, Such was 
the law of P^ngland at the foundation of the Province of 
Pennsylvania by William Penn, for although railways were 
not in existence, stage coaches were, in 1658, in Cromwell's 
time. Penn's \iews on the subject of Sunday are to be 
found in his works and those of Barclay, and were the views 
of the Society of Friends, who were the early colonists. In 
the laws agreed upon in I'Jigland expression is given to 
ihcni in the 3''ith law : 'That according totiie good example 
of the primiti\'e Christians, and for the ease of the creation, 



135 

every first day of the week, called the Lord's day, people 
shall abstain from their common daily labor, that they may 
the better dispose themselves to worship God according to 
their understandings.' With all Penn's liberality, we find 
by Janney's life of him, he was strictly orthodox in his own 
belief p. 575- It is certain also that he agreed with Luther 
and Calvin, and the statute of Edward 6th, as to the insti- 
tution of the Lord's day, and that the mode of observance 
of it should be prescribed by the civil authority. In 1705 
was passed the act to restrain people from labor on the first 
day of the week, which is copied verbatim from the English 
statute, in the prohibitory part of the first section to which 
a penalty is attached, and is therefore to be construed in the 
same way, which would not have brought either stage 
coaches or railways, if they had been in existence, within 
the act. This remained the law until the 30th of March, 
1779, when an act for the suppression of vice and immo- 
rality was passed, by the 2d section of which it was enacted, 
'that if any person shall do any kind of work of his or her 
ordinary calling, qr follow or do any worldly employment 
or business whatsoever on the Lord's day, commonly called 
Sunday (works of necessity and mercy only excepted),' he 
should be fined. This act not having been enforced, and 
the fine, being payable in depreciated currency, having be- 
come less than a shilling in specie currency, another act 
was passed on the 25th September, 1786, forbidding, under 
a penalt}^ any person doing or performing any worldly em- 
ployment or business whatsoever on the Lord's day, com- 
monly called Sunday (works of necessity and charity only 
excepted) ; 'Provided, always, that nothing in this act con- 
tained, shall be construed to prohibit the dressing of victuals 
in private families, bake houses or in lodging houses, wine 
and other houses of entertainment for the use of sojourners, 
travellers or strangers, or to hinder watermen from landing 
their passengers, or stage coaches, or stage wagons from 



136 

carrying travellers (having the consent of a justice of the 
peace upon extraordinary occasions), on the Lord's day, 
commonly called Sunday, nor to the delivery of milk or 
other necessaries of life, before nine o'clock in the forenoon, 
nor after five of the clock in the afternoon of the same day.' 
Then came the Act of the 22d of April, 1794, which was 
passed the year after the yellow fever had devastated our 
city, and which is the existing law. The first section enacts 
that, 'if any person shall do or perform any worldly employ- 
ment or business whatsoever on the Lord's day, commonly 
called Sunday (works of necessity and charity only ex- 
cepted), he shall, for every such offence, forfeit and pay four 
dollars.' It will be observed that the Act of 1682 contained 
no penalty, which was, however, supplied by the Act of 
1700; but the Act of 1705, like the statute of Car. 2, did 
not apply to stage coaches or to travellers by public con- 
veyances, and this was the wise and liberal law of the prov- 
ince under which grew up the usages mentioned by C. J. 
Lowrie, in Commonwealth v. Ncsbit, 10 Casey, 398, and 
which would be illegal under a strict construction of the 
Act of 1794. In 1779 and 1786 the language was changed, 
and this accounts for the exception of stage coaches in the 
proviso of the last named act. The cardinal error in Johns- 
ton z'. Commonwealth, 10 Harris, 109, in the omnibus case, 
is in treating Sunday as set apart by divine command, and 
from the whole decision two judges, two-fifths of the court, 
dissented in opinions of very great weight and force; and 
the error in Commonwealth 7'. Nesbit, 10 Casey, 398, was 
in assuming that usages, which were considered exceptions, 
had grown up under laws of a similar character, which we 
iiave seen was not the case, instead of treating them as 
works of necessity, which they clearly are. Judge Bell, in 
Specht 7'. Commonwealth, 8 Barr, 325, puts the Sunday 
law on its true basis : 'Its sole mission is to inculcate a tem- 
porar)' weekly cessation from labor, but it adds not to this 



137 

requirement any religious obligation.' I shall therefore 
treat the case before us as one within the exceptions of nec- 
essity and charity. Before doing so, it will be proper to 
consider the history of this prohibitory law. With us it 
binds all persons, whether Israelites or Seventh-day Christ- 
ians. In Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York 
and Ohio, persons who conscientiously believe and keep the 
seventh day as holy time, may do secular work and labor 
on Sunday, provided they disturb no other persons ; and 
in Connecticut the prohibition to do any work is limited to 
that portion of the day between the rising of the sun and 
the setting of the same. Our very illiberality should make 
us more desirous to extend the limits of necessity and 
charity, and not to confine them within narrow boundaries 
in this age of improvement. After another season of pesti- 
lence, the legislature, on the 4th April, 1798, passed an act 
to prevent the disturbance of religious societies in the city 
of Philadelphia during the time of divine service, which, 
after reciting the Act of the 6th February, 173 1, relating to 
religious societies, and stating that they had purchased lots 
and erected churches, and other houses of religious worship, 
and that by the constitution of this Commonwealth it is de- 
clared 'that all men have a natural and indefeasible right to 
worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their 
conscience.' 'And whereas, it would be nugatory to grant 
the said rights without securing the peaceable and quiet 
enjoyment of them ;' it then enacted that the religious so- 
cieties aforesaid were each authorized by a suitable person 
'to extend and fasten so many chains across the streets, 
lanes or alleys,' as may be sufficient 'to hinder and obstmct 
all coaches, coachees, chariots, chaises, wagons and other 
carriages whatsoever, and all and every person or persons, 
riding or travelling on horseback, from passing by the 
said churches or houses of religious worship during the 
time of divine service therein.' They were only to be ex- 



138 

tended across the streets on Sundays, nor then until the 
commencement of divine service within said churches; said 
chains to be taken down before dusk and immediately after 
divine service is ended in the same. The iron sockets in 
which the posts were fixed to which the chains were at- 
tached, are still to be seen opposite some of the old churches. 
In 1816 this act was extended to the incorporated district 
of the Northern Liberties, and both acts were repealed in 
1 83 1, showing that the public were convinced that the pas- 
sage of these vehicles and horses, neither disturbed the con- 
gregations during divine service, nor injured the property, 
or decreased the value of the churches. In England the 
railroads are not compelled to run on Sundays, but when- 
ever they do, they are obliged to provide a cheap train also, 
which shall stop at all the usual stations, so as to accom- 
modate poor persons. Some sixteen years ago the directors 
of the railway between Glasgow and Edinburgh stopped the 
Sunday train, except the mail car, which they were obliged 
to run to carry the mail. This road has been lately pur- 
chased by the North British Railway Company, who have 
resumed the Sunday trains, much to the comfort of the 
people. It is not astonishing that the Scottish clergy, who 
are all of one denomination, should be very strict in their 
Sunday observances, when it was thought improper to walk 
on Sunday afternoon, after divine service, for recreation, 
and when in some parts of Scotland a clerg)'man cannot 
shave himself on Sunday morning, because it is an infrac- 
tion of the fourth commandment, 'In it thou shalt do no 
manner of work.' In 1658 the Presbytery of Strathbogie 
condemned an offender accused of Sabbath breaking for 
saving the life of a sheep. All other modes of passing from 
one part of the state to another are extinguished, and trav- 
elling by private conveyance no longer exists. If the Sun- 
day prohibition extends to railroads, then no errand of 
mercy, at any distance from the city, can ever be accom- 



139 

plished on that day. I have had a personal experience of 
the value of Sunday trains; for on a Sunday I was enabled 
to take a most distinguished physician, who could not leave 
the city on any other day, to see a sick sister, at thirty 
miles distant, leaving after breakfast and returning before 
dinner. I have therefore no hesitation in saying, that I 
consider Sunday trains as coming within the exceptions of 
necessity and charity. The Commonwealth v. Nesbit was 
decided in the autumn of 1859, eight years ago, and Chief 
Justice Lowrie said : 'The law regards that as necessary, 
which the common sense of the country, in its ordinary 
modes of doing its business, regards as necessary.' There 
are now four passenger railways in Pittsburg, operating 
se\'enteen miles of road, and passing in front of churches of 
every sect and denomination, and all running on Sunday, 
and used and patronized by divines, judges, and all the re- 
ligious persons in the community. They have met with 
universal approbation, and the Sunday cars have become a 
matter of absolute necessity in taking persons to and from 
church, and have conduced greatly to the peace and quiet 
of the city and suburbs. This is the universal belief, and I 
know it to be correct, having frequently ridden in them on 
Sunday. Sunday cars are used in Boston, New York, 
Albany, Troy and Brooklyn, in Hoboken and Jersey City 
in New Jersey, Baltimore, Nashville, Cincinnati, Washing- 
ton, St. Louis and Chicago, and give universal satisfaction. 
Within the last ten years, 167 miles of passenger railway 
have been built and worked in this city, which have entire- 
ly superseded the omnibuses, which had numbered 400, 
and have virtually dispensed with all other means of gen- 
eral locomotion in this city. At the time of the passage of 
the Sunday law, the population of the city of Philadelphia 
was under 30,000, and we now have within the corporate 
limits a population nearly double that of the whole state in 
1790, when Pittsburg had but 1200 souls, and the county 



I40 

of Eric was not the property of the commr.nw ealth. Some 
of the vehicles named in the Act of 1798, are now known 
only by tradition, and an entire and radical change has 
taken place in the means of locomotion accommodated to 
a municipality of 130 square miles in area, with lOO.CXX) 
dwellings, and with streets extending miles in length, and 
many of them separated by a navigable stream, which in- 
creases the difficulty of passing from one part of the city 
to another. In 1794 we had no waterworks, no iron pipes, 
no steamboats, no canals, no railroads, no gas, no telegraph, 
no Atlantic cable, and only one stone turnpike — all of which 
are matters of indispensable necessity, and coming clearly 
within the necessity exception of the Sunday law. In 1856 
the first passenger railway was chartered. The passen- 
ger railways to-day, in the short period of eleven years, 
traverse nearly every portion of the city, and pass over the 
Schuylkill by the bridges at Chestnut and Market streets, 
at Fairmount and Girard avenue. The rails laid are broad, 
and accommodate all vehicles, whether for pleasure or bur- 
den, with a smooth surface, diminishing greatly the noise 
and the labor of the horses. To an invalid nothing can be 
more grateful than to escape from the cobblestones, and to 
ride on the railway track. It has been decided that no per- 
son can claim damages from a company whose road passes 
on a street in front of his property. These passenger rail- 
ways are therefore legal institutions, and the owners of the 
tracks laid on the streets subject to a modified user by the 
public. Workmen and laboring men are enabled by these 
railways to work a long way from their homes without the 
fatigue of walking long distances, and the consequent loss 
of time ; men of business, old persons, invalids, women and 
children, are enabled to ride on their different errands at a 
small expense. Our city spreads out in every direction, • 
because distances are in fact annihilated by the passenger 
railways. The stoppage of these railways would utterly 



141 

derange the \vho!e business of the city, reduce the value of 
all property, and entirely destroy the present prosperous 
condition of our metropolis. The railways are therefore an 
absolute necessity, and are clearly within the exception of 
the statute. These railways are in operation a very large 
portion of the twenty-four hours, and in some instances 
every hour of the twenty-four. Their necessity in cold, 
wind, rain, hail, sleet and snow, and in the heats of mid- 
summer, all acknowledge. Most of the plaintiffs, if not all, 
have places of business on streets where passenger cars are 
passing every few minutes, and no one has complained that 
they have ever interfered with his addition of items in a 
bill, in his correspondence with his customers, or the de- 
tails of his trade or occupation. Clergymen and religious 
persons have family worship on week days, and meetings 
for religious worship are held on various days besides Sun- 
days, but I have never heard that the cars disturbed them 
or interfered with the prayers put up by pious men on every 
day in the year in their own dwellings, except in the single 
case of Sunday. People sleep whilst the cars are running, 
and no one complains of them as a nuisance. The greatest 
nuisance is the driving up of carriages during the sermon 
to take home at the close of the service the rich members 
of the congregation. There are two services a day, occu- 
pying two hours in the morning, and two hours in the 
afternoon, say four hours out of the twenty-four, and to 
protect these four hours we are asked to enjoin the whole 
day. When there is no religious worship a church experi- 
ences no inconvenience, and its complaint is like that of an 
owner of an uninhabited dwelling, and entitled to no more 
consideration. It is certain that a railway car, rolling over 
a smooth iron rail, occasions no more real noise than a 
wagon or a carriage driven smartly over a cobblestone pave- 
ment. It is to be recollected that this noise of the rolling 
of the cars is legal, and authorized by Acts of Assembly, 



142 

and therefore it is damnuui absque injuria, and it clearly is 
not such an annoyance 'as materially to interfere with the 
ordinary comfort of human existence,' and neither of the 
plaintiffs could obtain any damages, much less substantial 
damages at law, so as to entitle him to an injunction. Crump 
V. Lambert, Law Rep. 3 Eq.' 409. As to disturbing per- 
sons in private dwellings on Sunday, it is an absurdity, 
which requires no answer. If, therefore, the churches, or 
rather the individual pewholders, have no right to complain, 
what right have these plaintiffs to deny others the right of 
locomotion, in order to force them to attend church in the 
very teeth of the constitutional provision, 'that no man can 
of right be compelled to attend, erect or support any place 
of worship, or to maintain any ministry against his consent.' 
Having established the absolute necessity, in the present 
state of our city, of passenger railways, and the utter im- 
practicability of doing without them, why should there be 
one day in seven in which that necessity must cease, and 
not operate ? All that ceases on Sunday is common toil or 
labor, and the intention is to protect the laboring man who 
earns his bread by the sweat of his brow. Besides worship 
and prayer, there are hours for healthful and innocent recre- 
ation. These are protected by the constitutional provision. 
We have public squares and a great public park owned by 
our fellow citizens, and intended for their benefit and that 
of their wives and children. Clergymen, lawyers, physicians, 
merchants, and even judges, have six days in the week in 
which they may enjoy all these and other similar adv^an- 
tages, and which they may do so cheaply by means of the 
passenger railways. The laboring man, the mechanic, the 
artisan, has but one day in which he can rest, can dress 
himself and his family in their comfortable Sunday clothes, 
attend church, and then take healthful exercise ; but, by 
this injunction, his carriage — the poor man's carriage, tJie 
passenger car — is taken awa)', and is not permitted to run 



143 

for his accommodation. The laboring man and his child- 
dren are never allowed to see Fairmount Park, a part of his 
own property. The cars are required on Sunday to carry 
persons to and from church, and are not these church going 
people entitled to have them ? The necessity for this clear- 
ly exists on Sunday, and so it does enable persons to par- 
take of the fresh air in the squares and parks and in the 
country. But we should not oblige the working man to 
confine himself to his own narrow, stifling room, and forbid 
him to enjoy the fresh air of heaven. We have three long 
months of summer which the laboring man cannot escape. 
Merchants, manufacturers, lawyers, judges and physicians 
run away from them, and even clergymen leave their 
churches, and go to the seashore or to the mountains, to 
avoid the torrid months of July and August. Shall not the 
operative have the poor privilege allowed him of a passen- 
ger car on Sunday ? The same necessity exists on Sunday 
as on any other day, enhanced by the fact that you are pre- 
venting thousands from attending houses of religious wor- 
ship. I place my opinion, therefore, of the entire legality 
of running passenger cars on Sunday, on the same footing 
with the Sunday trains of the steam railroads, as being 
clearly within the exceptions both of necessity and charity. 
The mail protects nothing but the mail car on the steam 
railroads, and many of the trains carry no mail at all. If I 
conceded the illegality, still it would be clear to me that 
these plaintiffs have no standing in this court, and no right 
to ask for any injunction against these defendants. It is a 
matter for the commonwealth alone, 'and she has her own 
chosen officers to protect her own rights, and the rights of 
the whole community are what constitute public rights, or 
the rights of the commonwealth.' I am deeply impressed 
with the necessity of a proper observance of Sunday as a 
day of worship and prayer and of rest from labor; but liv- 
ing under the new dispensation, and not under the old dis- 



144 

pensation, I feci no inclination to turn the Lord's day into 
a JeivisJi Sabbat! i . ' ' 

Thus the law stands in Pennsylvania, and thus in sub- 
stance it has stood since the establishment of the provincial 
government of William Penn in 1682. I now close the re- 
view of the Sunday laws as they have come down to us. 
No one can be more conscious how defective this sketch is 
than the writer. There is nothing new in it, and I know 
that it is imperfect. I have derived great satisfaction in 
the study of the subject and hope that it will prove equal!)' 
interestin<: to all who read it. 



OLD FORGE. 



EARLY METHODISM, 



OLD FORGE-EARLY METHODISM. 



Remarks by George B. Kulp at the dedication of the Stewart Memorial Church, 
at Old Forge, Pa., April 26, 1892. 



"And the captain of the Lord's host said unto Joshua, Loose thy 
shoe from off thy foot, for the place whereon thou standest is holy." 

In the year 1791, in this immediate vicinity, the first 
Methodist Class, in what is now Lackawanna county, was 
held. It was also the most northern point in Pennsylvania 
in which Methodism had been established. James Sutton 
was the leader, and the Class was held at the house of Cap- 
tain John Vaughan. Old Forge derived its name from Dr. 
William Hooker Smith, who, after his return from General 
Sullivan's expedition, located himself permanently here on 
the rocky edge of the Lackawanna beside the sycamore and 
oak where first, in the Lackawanna valley, the sound of 
the trip-hammer reverberated or mingled with the hoarse 
babblings of its water. The forge was erected by Dr. Smith 
and James Sutton, in the spring of 1789, for converting ore 
into iron. It stood immediately below the falls or rapids 
in the stream, between two and three miles above its mouth. 
Hon. Charles Miner says: "My recollections of Pittston 
and Old Forge are all of the most cheerful character — but 
to the Forge — the heaps of charcoal and bog ore, half a 
dozen New Jersey firemen at the furnace. What life, what 
clatter. And then at the mansion on the hill" (near the old 
Drake store) "might be seen the owner, Dr. William Hooker 
Smith, now nearly superannuated, who, in his day, was the 
great physician of the valley, and if perchance the day was 

Note. — The Stewart Memorial Church was erected by Mrs. Oeorge B. Kulp, Mrs. Charles 
B. Scott, Mrs. William D. Loomis and Mrs. Lewis C. Hcssler, as a Mcinoriam to their 
late parents, Mr. and Mrs. John Stewart, of Scranton, Pa. 



148 

fine and his family on the parterre, )'ou might sec his 
daughters, unsurpassed in beauty and grace, whose every 
movement was harmony, that would add a charm to the 
proudest city mansion." We might say in this connection 
that Dr. Smith was not, and never became, a Methodist. In 
his will, written by his own hand, and dated March 19, 
1810, he uses the following language: "I recommend my 
soul to Almighty God that gave it to me, nothing doubting 
but that I shall be finally happy. My destiny, I believe, 
was determined unalterably before I had existence. God 
does not leave any of his works at random subject to chance, 
but in what place, where or how I shall be happy, I know 
not." And at the close of his will was the following : "Now, 
to the Sacred Spring of all mercies and Original Fountain 
of all goodness to the Infinite and Eternal being whose pur- 
pose is unalterable, whose power and dominion is without 
end, whose compassion fails not ; to the High and Lofty One 
who inhabits eternity and dwells in light be glory, majes- 
ty, dominion and power now and for evermore. Amen." 
The first permanent settlement in the Wyoming Valley was 
in 1769. In that year or the next Connecticut people set- 
tled in Pittston, as this neighborhood was then called. The 
first saw and grist mills in the Lackawanna Valley were 
built by the town (Pittston) at the falls of the Lackawanna 
river, near here, in the year 1774. In passing down the val- 
ley one cannot fail to observe, as he passes over the Lack- 
awanna bridge below the rapids, a deep, ragged, narrow 
passage cut through the rocks, that here at one time turned 
aside the waters of the stream as they come fretting and 
chaffing over the rocky bed. This channel was dug out as 
early as 1774 for mill purposes, as stated. It was afterwards 
utilized by Messrs. Smith and Sutton in running their forge. 
In the early days, owing to the magnificent water power of 
the Lacka\v^anna, Spring Brook, Ascension, Mill and Keys 
or Reisers creek, many enterprises sprang up. There were 



149 

saw and grist mills, forges, bloomers, distilleries, tan yards, 
foundries, &c. Cornelius Atherton resided at Keys Creek. 
He was a blacksmith, and it is said that the first clothiers 
shears in the United States were made by him. Prior to July 
8, 1 778, a saw mill was erected on the same creek by Timothy 
Keys. He was killed by Indians on that date. Samuel Miller 
built a saw mill and a small log grist mill on Mill Creek in 
1782. N. Hurlbut erected, at Old Forge, in 1805, a card- 
ing machine, the first one erected in the county. Quite a 
village sprang up in what is now known locally as Drake- 
town. Old Forge, as a centre, when Luzerne county em- 
braced the counties of Bradford, Lackawanna, Susquehan- 
na and Wyoming, was, without doubt, the busiest place in 
the county. In this important centre Methodism found a 
lodgment which showed the keen vision of Father Owen in 
establishing a class at this point. In 1828 there were but 
fourteen heads of families living within the present limits of 
the borough of Pittston, and John Stewart, Sr., the father 
of the man whose memory we meet to commemorate, was 
one of these. Wilkes-Barre, in 1795, contained but forty- 
five dwellings. Old Forge was of so much importance that 
the second postmaster of Pittston removed his office near 
here. Anning Owen was the apostle of Methodism in 
Wyoming. He was one of the hand full of courageous men 
who were defeated and scattered by an overwhelming force 
under the command of Colonel John Butler. In the battle 
and massacre of Wyoming, in 1778, he was by the side of 
his brother-in-law, Benjamin Carpenter, who afterwards be- 
came one of the judges of Luzerne county. He stood the 
fire of the enemy and answered it shot after shot in such 
quick succession that the band of his gun became burning 
hot. "My gun is so hot that I cannot hold it," exclaimed the 
brave patriot soldier, "Do the best you can then," was the 
reply of his friend. A shot or two more and the day was 
lost. Owen and Carpenter fled to the river and secreted 



150 

themselves under cover of a large grape vine which hung 
from the branches of a tree and lay in the water. There 
they laid in safety until the darkness of the night enabled 
them to gain the fort. They were a portion of the small 
number who escaped with their lives from the bloody en- 
counter without swimming the river. In the account which 
Mr. Owen often subsequently gave of his escape he stated that 
when upon the run he expected every moment to be shot or 
tomahawked, and the terrible thought of being sent into 
eternity unprepared filled his soul with horror. He prayed 
as he ran, and when he lay in the water his every breath was 
occupied with the silent but earnest prayer, "God have mercy 
on my soul." There and then it was that he gave his heart 
to God and vowed to be his forever. Mr. Owen returned 
to the east with the fugitives, but he was a changed man. 
He considered his deliverance from death as little short of 
a miracle, and that in it there was a wise and gracious de- 
sign which had reference to his eternal well being. He was 
now a man of prayer, possessed a tender conscience and in- 
dulged a trembling hope in Christ. In this condition Mr. 
Owen became acquainted with the Methodists. Their 
earnest and powerful preaching and the doctrines which 
they taught met in his heart a ready response. He was of 
an ardent temperament and was never in favor of half way 
measures in anything. He soon drank in the spirit of the 
early Methodists, and was as full of enthusiasm as any of 
them. His religious experience became more deep and 
thorough and his evidence of sins forgiven more clear and 
satisfactory. He now rejoiced greatly in the liberty where- 
with Christ had made him free and panted to be useful. 
The language of his inmost soul was : 

"O, that the world might taste and see 

The riches of his grace, 
The arms of love that compass me. 

Would all mankind embrace." 



151 

In this state of mind Mr. Owen returned to Wyoming and 
settled among his old companions in tribulation. He was a 
blacksmith and he commenced, as he supposed, hammering 
out his fortune in what is now the borough of Dorranceton, 
at the point where the highway crosses a branch of Toby's 
Creek. Mr. Owen had no sooner become settled in Wyom- 
ing than he commenced conversation with his neighbors upon 
the subject of religion, and began, with many tears, to tell 
them what great things God had done for his soul. His words 
were as coals of fire upon the heads and the hearts of those 
he addressed, and he soon found that a deep sympathy with 
his ideas and feelings was abroad, and rapidly extending. 
He appointed prayer meetings in his own house. The 
people were melted down under his prayers, his exhorta- 
tions and singing. He was invited to appoint meetings at 
other places in the neighborhood, and he listened to the 
call. A revival of religion broke out at Ross Hill, about a 
mile from his residence, and just across the line which then 
separated the townships of Kingston and Plymouth. Great 
power attended the simple, earnest efforts of the blacksmith, 
and souls were converted to God. He studied the openings 
of Providence and tried in all things to follow the Divine 
light. He was regarded by the young converts as their 
spiritual father, and to him they looked for advice and com- 
fort. Mr. Owen now considered himself providentially 
called upon to provide, at least temporally, for the spiritual 
wants of his flock, and he formed them into a class. Most 
of the members of the little band resided in the neighbor- 
hood of Ross Hill, that point became the center of opera- 
tions. This class was called the Ross Hill class until 
the old order of things passed away. It was formed in 
1788. The little band was, for the time, well content to re- 
gard as their spiritual guide the man who had first raised 
the standard of the cross in their midst, and being the means 
under God of their conversion. He had not been con- 



152 

stituted in the regular way either preacher, exhorter or 
class leader, and yet he exercised the functions of all these 
offices under the sanction of Providence, and to the great 
satisfaction and edification of the little church in the wilder- 
ness. Mr. Owen proceeded for a while under his extraor- 
dinary commission but finally began to be seriously exer- 
cised in mind upon the subject of the ministry. He visited 
some point at the east where Methodism had a. local habi- 
tation and a name, and on returning, at a meeting of his 
society, said: "I have received a regular license to preach 
and now have full power to proceed in the work." Among 
the families connected with Methodism in Wyoming in its 
infancy, were those of Adams, Baker, Brown, Bidlack, Car- 
ver, Carpenter, Coleman, Carey, Catlin, Dana, Davenport, 
Denison, Gray, Goodwin, Harris, Harvey, Inman, John- 
son, Jenkins, Pierce, Parrish, Pugh, Pringle, Ransom, Rus- 
sel, Sutton, Turner, Wooley, Wadhams, Williams, Waller, 
Weeks, and many others. Classes were now or had been 
established at the house of Jonathan Smith in Newport, at 
the widow Jameson's in Hanover, at Captain John Vaughn's 

at Old Forge, at the house of Lucas on Ross Hill, 

and at the widow Coleman's in Plymouth. It will be ob- 
served that the Old Forge class was the only one north of 
Wilkes-Barre at this time. Rev. Nathaniel B. Mills had the 
honor of being the first Methodist itinerant who found his 
way. over the mountains into the classic vale of Wyoming. 
This was in 1789, when he traveled Newburg circuit. Rev. 
Joseph Lovel, who traveled on Newburg circuit in 1790, 
was the next preacher who visited the valley. At this 
period there were no conference lines. The "elders" had a 
certain number of circuits in charge and the preachers at- 
tended conference as directed by Bishop Asbury. In 1790 
"Thomas Morrell, elder," embraced within his district New 
York, Elizabeth Town, Long Island, New Rochelle and New- 
burg. Thomas Morrell was a major in the Revolutionary 



153 

War. In the Conference of 1789 he was ordained an elder, 
and appointed presiding elder. Asbury, in his journal of 
1802, says: "Wonders will never cease. Nothing would 
serve but I must marry Thomas Morrell to a young woman. 
Such a solitary wedding I suppose has been but seldom 
seen. Behold father Morrell fifty-five, father Whatcoat, 
sixty-six, Francis Asbury, fifty-seven, and the ceremony 
performed solemnly at the solemn hour of ten at night." 
The next conference held its session in New York, May 26, 
1 79 1. At that conference Rev. James Campbell was ap- 
pointed to Wyoming, and Rev. Robert Cloud was elder. 
His district embraced Newburg, Wyoming, New York, New 
Rochelle and Long Island. Mrs. Bedford, who was the 
daughter of James Sutton, says: "Mr. Campbell preached 
at my father's once in two weeks. It was like preaching 
to the walls ! Pittston was, at that time, a very hardened 
place, and great prejudice was raised against us." Thus 
was the Church established in the wilderness. The same 
year that regular preaching was held at Old Forge the 
sainted Wesley died. On Wednesday, May 8, 1792, Rev. 
William Colbert, in his journal, says : "Road to Lackawan- 
na Forge and preached at James Sutton's on I Cor. 6 : 19, 
20. Here I met with a disputing calvinist" [probably Dr. 
Smith]. "Sister Sutton and her daughter" [Mrs. Bedford], 
"appeared to be very clever women." In 1793 Bishop As- 
bury visited Wyoming and no doubt preached at Old Forge. 
In his journal, under date of July 8, he says : "I took the 
wilderness through the mountains, up the Lackawanna on 
the twelve mile swamp. This place is famous for dirt and 
lofty hemlock. We lodged in the middle of the swamp, at 
S's, and made out better than we expected." In 1807 
Bishop Asbury again visited Wyoming. Under date of 
July 17, he says : "To Sutton's, ten miles ; the house neat 
as a palace, and we were entertained like kings by a king 
and queen. It was no small consolation to lie down on a 



154 

clean floor after all we had suffered from dirt and its con- 
sequences. Once more I am at Wyoming. We have wor- 
ried through and clambered over one hundred miles of the 
rough roads of wild Susquehanna. Oh ! the precipitous 
banks, winding narrows, rocks, sidling hills, obstructive 
paths, and fords scarcely fordable. ruts, stumps and gul- 
leys." In 1811 he was again at Wyoming. This was 
probably his last visit to this section of the country. The 
great body of the early Methodist preachers were plain, un- 
educated men, who had come immediately from the masses 
of the people. They were acquainted with the views and 
feelings of their congregations, and their sermons were 
adapted to people like themselves. The itinerating system 
brought them in contact with an immense variety of char- 
acter, imparting a most valuable knowledge of human na- 
ture, while their extensive circuits furnished sufficient of 
exercise to develop and strengthen the physical powers and 
to give robust constitutions. They were pious, earnest 
men, imbued with a deep sense of their responsibility, and 
with a solemn concern for the souls of their fellow men. 
They did not confine their ministrations to the highways, 
and to the densely populated districts, but they penetrated 
along the by-paths, into the secluded valleys, and among 
the mountains. They preached in school houses, in private 
dwellings, in barns, and in the open air, once in every work 
day in the week, and twice or thrice on Sunday. They 
went into the new settlements, preached, reached the hearts 
of their hearers formed classes, enjoined on them to read 
the word of God, to meet often for prayer, and "Gave out" 
that at such a time, the Lord willing, they would be along 
again. Wherever they went the people received them 
gladly, for, apart from their sacred office, they were a most 
interesting class of men, who possessed an immense fund 
of information, gathered in their travels from observation, 
and from the conversation of others. Still theirs was a life 



155 

of hardship. The country was a wilderness, the roads were 
generally in a most wretched condition, and the people were 
poor. Their annual salary was sixty-four dollars, and trav- 
eling expenses, and none but most devout Christians, who 
looked to a future state of happiness as the only thing worth 
striving for, could have been so indefatigable in their labors, 
and so self-sacrificing in their lives. They have left a won- 
derful monument of their labors and self-denial behind them. 
On the foundation they laid and on the structure they 
raised, a vast multitude of busy hands have been engaged, 
and that grand monument is rising higher and higher 
towards the heavens, and attracting more and more the at- 
tention of mankind. In 1784, at the "Christmas Confer- 
ence," the Methodist Episcopal Church of the United States 
was duly organized. She had, at this time, several hundred 
local preachers, 83 itinerants, of which 63 assisted at the 
Conference, and 14,988 members. In 1789 she was the 
first of the religious denominations to send an address of 
congratulation to General Washington after his introduc- 
tion into the office of first president of the United States. 
In 1800 there were 54,894 communicates of Methodist 
Churches in the United States. In 1890 she had 4,980,240 
communicants. Happily there is not the least sign of this 
tide tending to ebb, and by another centenary of Wesley's 
death may it not, with other kindred streams, have covered 
the earth as the waters cover the sea. 



o »m ■* 




. v;. 







014 209 116 1 









.,' ft »^y V-" •»»■ 












